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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Tom Victor

Roy Keane adopted clever on-air tactic to avoid awkward England celebrations vs Senegal

As England found the net against Senegal, Roy Keane resorted to note-taking to avoid getting swept up in the celebrations.

Keane, who played his international football for Ireland, was in the ITV studio for the World Cup last-16 clash. He was joined in the studio by former England internationals Ian Wright and Gary Neville, but did not share in his colleagues' pride as three unanswered goals sent Gareth Southgate's team into the quarter-finals.

Any pretence of neutrality was pushed to one side as Neville and Wright were shown celebrating in a behind-the-scenes clip. Keane, however, had no intention of joining in.

Perhaps Keane knew the cameras could be rolling at any time and didn't want to be snapped - even accidentally - getting caught up in the celebrations. While he can't have known the clip would be used during the broadcast, he still turned away from the pitch and picked up a pen to jot something in his notepad.

It is unclear which goal the act was in response to, but the move may have allowed him to offer some insight into England's performance when asked to do so either at full-time or half-time. England scored twice in the first period through Jordan Henderson and Harry Kane - both of whom were opening their account for the tournament - with Bukayo Saka adding a third.

Much of the discussion after the game concerned Jude Bellingham, with the Borussia Dortmund midfielder giving a dominant performance against the Lions of Teranga. It can sometimes take a lot to impress Keane, but the former Manchester United man spoke highly of Bellingham and his fellow midfielders.

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"I’ve not seen a young midfielder play like that for years, normally you see one 26, 27," Keane said. "Everything in the game, we talk about what goes on in his brain, he’s like a man, that maturity, what’s going on upstairs is huge for a midfielder, decision-making, final pass. The kid has everything."

" The midfield, you know, is a solid three and that’s what you need," the Irishman had said a little earlier. "The attacking players are there to win football matches and I’ve never had any doubt with Jordan [Henderson].

"He can produce, he’s been a rock solid player and running onto it here, it’s not an easy finish, weaker foot, Jordan’s an excellent player, just as important and a character - which is obviously what Gareth likes. Put it this way, [Jurgen] Klopp’s played him for a long time and if he wasn’t sure of him, he wouldn’t be playing him."

England will continue their World Cup campaign on Saturday with a game against France. Olivier Giroud scored once and Kylian Mbappe scored twice to help Les Bleus past Poland, for whom Robert Lewandowski scored a late penalty.

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