Jack Grealish has hit back at Roy Keane after he took aim at the Aston Villa star for not stepping up in England's penalty shootout defeat to Italy.
England were denied their first major trophy in 55 years as they lost on penalties to Roberto Mancini’s dogged Italians.
Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka missed the crucial penalty for the Three Lions as England lost 3-2 in the shootout at Wembley on Sunday night.
In his post-match analysis on ITV, Keane questioned Grealish and Man City winger Raheem Sterling for not taking penalties.
However, England boss Gareth Southgate revealed after the game that the decision was taken out of their hands.
“If you’re Sterling or Grealish, you cannot sit there and watch a kid walk up ahead of you, you can’t," said a bullish Keane.
“You can’t sit there and go ‘I see a young kid, 19-year-old, a child, walking up in front of me, and I’ve played a lot more games, I’ve got a lot more experience.
“Sterling, who has won a lot more games, won trophies...
"Gareth might have been thinking he's going to be six or seven, you can’t sit there.
"That must be hard to take, you’ve got to go to this young kid and say 'I'll step up before you'."
Grealishy came off the bench during extra time in the match and was subject to a horrible tackle by Italian ace Jorginho.
Dismayed by Keane’s comments, Grealish said on Twitter that he was willing to step forward for England.
“I said I wanted to take one!!!!” he tweeted.
“The gaffer has made so many right decisions through this tournament and he did tonight!
“But I won’t have people say that I didn’t want to take a peno when I said I will…”
Keane's comments got England fans raised as they showed a bit of fight - not for the first time - to protect one of their star men.
One fan said: "Yeah, okay Roy. This is the same Grealish who jumped through hoops to get in the side and desperate to get on the pitch.
"The issue is poor tactics not Sterling or Grealish. We lost to a better coach not a better team. BTW Southgate picked the penalty takers."
Another supporter added: "I truly doubt Grealish didn’t offer himself. Always offers himself for everything Villa related. Southgate makes the decisions, and he was wrong today."
"I'd like to know if the players have a say on who takes penalties because I can't see Grealish backing away from taking one," added a third fan.
"He thrives in environments like that, he should've taken one. This is on Southgate."
Now that the dust has settled, Grealish has hit back at Roy Keane on social media.
England boss Southgate has also spoken out this morning, admitting he was hurting after the defeat.
"You're not a 'nice' team to get to a final. We've overcome a lot of hurdles we've never been able to in the past," Southgate said.
"If you want sustained success as a team, you need to be constantly evolving, improving and constantly finishing in latter stages of tournaments.
"It feels like my stomach has been ripped out this morning.”
