England coach Gareth Southgate has condemned the ridiculous criticism and boos aimed at Harry Maguire in the 3-1 friendly win over Ukraine on Tuesday, September 12 at Hampden Park.
Manchester City forward Phil Foden scored the first goal of the game for England in the 32nd minute of the first half, Jude Bellingham made it 2-0 just three minutes later.
Maguire came on as a substitute for Marc Guehi in the 46th minute and he scored an own goal in the 67th minute.
England captain Harry Kane made it 3-1 in the 81st minute of the encounter.
Maguire was booed and jeered by Scotland fans before he scored the own goal and also after the goal.
Speaking Sky Sports Southgate condemned the constant and incessant boos and jeers that Maguire has been subjected too.
“It’s a joke,” Southgate said
“I’ve never known a player treated like he is, not by the Scottish fans, by our own commentators, the pundits, whatever it is.
“He is beyond anything I’ve ever seen. He’s been an absolute stalwart for us in the second most successful England team for decades. He’s been a key part of that.
“Everytime he goes on the field, the resilience he shows is absolutely incredible. He’s a top player. We’re all with him, our fans were brilliant with him tonight.”
Maguire has made five appearances in England’s UEFA Euros qualifiers.
The Three Lions are first in Group C of the Euro 2024 qualifiers with 13 points from five games.
He has made one appearance for Manchester United in the 2023/24 Premier League season.
United are currently 11th on the Premier League table with six points after four matches in the division.
2 Comments
This is the same thing Ekong is facing with some Naija fans. A forumite here even suggested that he is not good enough to be a professional footballer! A player who has Olympic and Afcon bronze medals, and has played in a world cup is not good enough!
Perhaps Maguire and Ekong can meet at a local pub later and have a laugh about their mutual problem.
Hahahahaha Pompei….even when it is Ekong’s colleagues in defence who messed up, backed with video evidence from youtube….they will still look for a way to hang the blunder on Ekong’s neck and make it look as if he’s the only imperfect one in the entire team….case in point NGA vs SRL in Benin….despite video highlights showing Semi Ajayi culpable for 3 goals we conceded in the 2nd half…till tomorrow, they still hateful accuse Ekong of not being supermanly enough to prevent the goals from happening….LMAOo.