Troy Deeney has hailed the performances of all the England team in their win over Mexico, but picked out Anthony Gordon as a ‘beast’ at the Azteca.
The Three Lions are into the quarter-finals of the World Cup after a dramatic 3-2 victory in Mexico City on Sunday, and the early hours of Monday back home.
Jude Bellingham scored twice to open up a 2-0 lead in the first half but Julian Quiñones pounced to get one back before the break.
England’s right-back, Jarell Quansah was shown a red card early in the second half before Gordon was felled in the box to allow Harry Kane to re-establish a two-goal lead.
Don’t miss a World Cup moment
What a rollercoaster this has been. Make sense of the drama with Metro’s free daily newsletter, featuring England updates, match previews and exclusive analysis. Sign up now.
However, Kane then gave a penalty away himself, which Raul Jimenez converted on 60 minutes, making it a very nervy climax to the game, but one that England survived.
Bellingham and Kane were the goal-scoring heroes again for England, but Deeney picked out the tireless performance of Gordon in defence and attack on the left flank.
‘Jude Bellingham will get a lot of credit because he was fantastic,’ the former Watford and Birmingham striker said on CBS.
‘One person who had a fantastic game. The stats won’t agree with it, the untrained eye won’t agree with it, but if you’ve played the game you will agree with this 100 per cent.
‘Anthony Gordon was a beast today. Defensively he was helping out every time tracking back. Took us up the pitch when we needed to.
‘Were there moments when he could have been better? Absolutely.
Every player will go, “oh, could I have done this better?” He was a beast.
‘Ultimately, when you look through the whole team. You have to say, everyone was roughly 7.5/10, everyone. And then the two sprinkles of Bellingham and Kane, they go up to nine.’
Gordon puts the victory alongside some of the finest in England’s history, especially given the length of time they played with 10 men.
‘I think an all-time England great win,’ he told ITV. ‘I think it would have been anyway, but with the context around the game: the penalty, which I didn’t think was from what I’ve seen, the red card, which again, I didn’t think was, but we dug in.
‘It was really, really difficult, really hard with the altitude and one man less, but we did it.
‘I’ve said this for the past two, three weeks, we work so hard. I hope you believe me in training, we work so hard, we push each other so hard. I know when adversity comes, we’re going to be ready because of how hard we push each other.
‘If you train harder than the game is going to be, the game becomes much easier. Because we push each other so much in them moments, it’s second nature.’
On the performance and influence of Bellingham, he added: ‘He’s a global superstar for a reason. He’s 23 years of age, what he’s achieved so far is just incredible.
‘And more importantly, forget the football, one of a kind human being. Just so humble, never talks about himself, always putting the lads first, making people feel special as you walk onto the pitch. I hear him talking to the players and what he says, he’s an incredible human.’
England now meet Norway in the quarter-finals on Saturday (10pm UK time) in Miami after Erling Haaland scored twice in a 2-0 win over Brazil on Sunday.