Jordan Pickford England and Everton
Jordan Pickford

England have reached the quarter-finals of the European Championship by beating Germany 2-0 in the Round of 16 and Jordan Pickford and Raheem Sterling have been singled out for praise.

While everyone is busy talking about all the outfield players, Theo Walcott has chosen to highlight how important Jordan Pickford has been so far in the tournament, keeping clean sheets in all four matches.

“It’s all about clean sheets in tournament football,’ Pickford’s Everton teammate told talkSPORT, as quoted by Metro.

“I’ve been really pleased with Jordan and had a lot of people on his back about being too involved in the game.

“I think he’s taken a step back and started to handle the defence and not play the occasion. He’s leading on the field. When you’ve got a goalkeeper behind you like that, it helps. We are very difficult to break down.

“Jordan has always been a resilient young man and dealt with pressures and I’m sure now he’s grown his hair a little bit more he’s probably not hearing as much.

“He’s brilliant. Always done very well for England and Everton.”

Pundit Gary Neville also praised Pickford as the unsung hero of the England vs Germany game saying: “My MOM (man of the match) last night was Jordan Pickford and I also think he’s been England’s player of the tournament so far.

“I’ve been critical of him with Everton but with England he’s a different player!”

Rio Ferdinand also came out to praise Raheem Sterling who has now bagged three goals in four matches in EURO 2020 and the Manchester City man was instrumental in helping break the deadlock with his opening goal on Tuesday.

“Please can we start putting a bit more respect on Raheem Sterling’s name now, please!” said Ferdinand. “We said before the game, that this is an opportunity to become a national hero.

 

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“He’s got three goals, he’s been the one in this tournament who we needed to lift us and get us over the line and get us a result. He’s the person we looked to.

“What a professional, hard worker, the courage is one of the things I love about him. He’s one of them players who has the ability to scare you.

“He’s hard to read, his trickery. At this stage of his career he’s producing the end product, he’s decisive and deciding games. I believe that this kid has been at that level (world class).”

Raheem Sterling had fallen down the pecking order during the 2020-21 season under Pep Guardiola which is why his place in the national side was up for debate before the start of the tournament. But after his heroics against Germany, he will be one of the first names on Gareth Southgate’s team sheet for the quarter-final game.

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