Lineker teased he's ‘frightened’ of England spat growing after his sudden U-turn

26 June 2024 , 10:56

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Gary Lineker was in a more encouraging mood in regard to England's performance (Image: YouTube/The Rest is Football podcast)

Alan Shearer has jokingly accused Gary Lineker of being terrified of another backlash after the Match of the Day host gave a somewhat positive verdict on England's dismal draw with Slovenia.

Fans were once again left frustrated by Gareth Southgate's side's performance at Euro 2024, after their final match in Group C ended with a disappointing 0-0 draw with the 57th ranked nation in the FIFA rankings. Despite the game leaving plenty to be desired, Lineker was a lot more positive about the stalemate than he was with the 1-1 draw with Denmark, which he described – albeit in jest – as "s***".

Lineker, 63, found himself in another media storm after Harry Kane calmly hit back at his sweary verdict before the clash against Slovenia. The ex-Barcelona and Tottenham star slammed the reporter who directly mentioned Lineker's comment, accusing them of being afraid of asking their own questions.

Days after his comments, Lineker was more positive about the draw with Slovenia, citing that he saw more energy and liked the substitutions, which saw Kobbie Mainoo and Cole Palmer be brought on for their first minutes of the competition in Germany.

While speaking on the Rest is Football podcast, Lineker said: “I think there were signs in that performance that I quite liked. I would say in the second half, not the first half necessarily, I thought you could see that if this team continue to play a high press, chances will come. We may have been playing that way because Slovenia knew that a draw would get them through, so they were cautious and sat back a little bit.

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"I understand that but I saw enough to suggest that England are improving slightly. I think there were downsides, but I think there were real positives, particularly when I thought Cole Palmer came on. We’ve said this many times, we know we’ve got a lot of talented young players but this kid, he might well be the best of the lot, I don’t know, we shall see, we don’t want to put too much pressure on him, but I don’t think he cares about pressure.”

Lineker's punditry colleagues Micah Richards and Shearer were not convinced by England's display or Lineker's opinion. A rather baffled Richards replied: “Do you know who we were playing tonight? A team ranked 57th in the world."

Alan Shearer was not so convinced (YouTube/The Rest is Football podcast)

After Lineker tried to further justify his comments, an even more suspicious Shearer replied: " If I was a cynic, one would say one was frightened of getting criticised," to which a defensive Lineker replied: “Me? Frightened of getting criticised? I’ve never been frightened of getting criticised in my life. I’m telling it as I see it.

“I thought the first half was really dreadful and once again, no high press [but there was] an occasional couple of little bits, but thought it was really poor. I didn’t like the team selection, I thought it was incredibly conservative. But in the second half, the fact he actually made a substitution at half-time [was good] and I thought Mainoo did really well. I thought Palmer did really well when he came on.

“I thought Kane had a bit more energy than he had in the first two games, I’m just trying to look for the positives. I’m not saying it was a great performance, not at all, but there was something there. A little bit of something, better than the other two games."

Lineker said he liked that players such as Mainoo were brought on from the bench (Getty Images)

Despite the result in Cologne, England did manage to go into the knockout stages as group winners, while also dodging potential clashes with tournament hosts Germany, competition favourites France and two-time winners Spain. England will play one of the four best third-placed teams in the Round of 16.

At present, the Netherlands appear to be the most likely opponent for Southgate's side. This will only change if the third-placed teams in Group E and Group F finish above Hungary, who have three points, in the third-placed standings.

All three teams in Group E, who are made up of Romania, Belgium, Slovakia and Ukraine are all tied on three points, meaning it's likely one of those countries will finish above Hungary in the third placed rankings. But for England to avoid the Dutch, they would need Georgia to beat Portugal, who have already qualified as group winners, or the Czech Republic to win against Turkey.

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Patrick Austen-Hardy