Gianluigi Donnarumma denied Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho, while Marcus Rashford hit the post as Italy edged a penalty shoot-out in the Euro 2020 final.
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Roma manager Jose Mourinho has slammed England’s senior stars like Raheem Sterling, John Stones for not stepping up to take the final penalty in the Euro 2020 final penalty shootout against Italy. Gareth Southgate’s side came unstuck from 12 yards as three stars missed when called upon. Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford were two of the players who missed penalties, with teenager Bukayo Saka missing the decisive kick.
Mourinho insisted that a more experienced player should have shouldered the responsibility.
“In this situation, where was Raheem Sterling? Where was John Stones? Where was Luke Shaw? Why didn’t Jordan Henderson or Kyle Walker stay on the pitch? I think it’s too much for a kid to have everything on his shoulders in this moment, but I don’t know, I have to ask that question to Gareth because many times what happens is that players who should be there are not there, players who should be there, they run away from the responsibility,” he said while speaking on TalkSport.
“And because I feel Gareth is such an honest guy and is so protective of his players, I don’t believe Gareth would ever say if “Player A or Player B” ran away or hid or said they were not ready to take one,” added Mourinho.
The Roma manager further suggested that a certain player had been left out of the set-up, having refused to take a penalty at the 2018 Russia World Cup.
“Because, don’t ask me who because I will not tell you, but I was told 100 per cent that one player that could be in this team and was not in this team, one of the reasons was in the World Cup semi-final he should have taken a penalty and he refused. In reality it’s very, very hard for Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho to come and take a penalty after one touch on the ball. But for Saka to have the destiny of a country on his shoulders, I think it’s too much,” said Mourinho.
“We can speak about the previous days and how they were amazing at taking penalties, but the problem with penalties is it’s one thing is to take one in training and one thing to take in a match, and for those situations there is no way to train them properly because you can’t train with the real pressure, it’s something you only feel in that moment. Poor Saka, I just feel very sorry for him.”
