England lost against the Czech Republic last night in their Euro 2020 qualifier, but the dreadful performance and result from Gareth Southgate’s side was far from the main talking point for most Reds fans.
In the first half, Harry Kane converted a penalty kick to put his team in front in the game, but there was some surprise at the reaction to how the spot kick was won.
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Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling was widely praised for his ‘experience’ in winning the penalty – a nice way of saying that he went down easily but invited enough contact to force referee Damir Skomina to blow for a foul.
Just last week, Sadio Mane was slated for doing a very similar thing when he went down late on against Leicester City after a rash tackle from Marc Albrighton.
Reds fans – and some supporters of other teams, too – were quick to point out the difference in reactions.
The penalty came after Raheem Sterling was fouled. He made the most of it, but there was definitely contact. Sadly, it means he's now going to face the same sort of criticism from the media that Sadio Mane did last weekend.
LOL! JK! He's English. Of course he won't.
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) October 11, 2019
Sterling using his experience 'there' for the pen.
Mané dived the other day for us though, yeah?
— Chris Pajak (@mrbloodred) October 11, 2019
https://twitter.com/MyLiverpoolFC3/status/1182772149272096770
Wonder how many of the England fans applauding Sterling were hurling abuse at Mané last week for basically doing the same thing.
— TheWool_LFC (@TheWool_LFC) October 11, 2019
So Raheem sterling gets touched and then exaggerates it and delays his reaction not too dissimilar to mane last week😂. Wonder if the pundits and media will have the same outrage now it’s one of their Ing-er-land golden child.
— 🅰️nthony (@Anthonyje29) October 11, 2019
https://twitter.com/MoMoneyMoSaIah/status/1182776668278214658
England play Bulgaria on Monday night before the Premier League returns with the Reds heading to Old Trafford next weekend.