England manager Gareth Southgate has warned his players they need to be careful how they interact with the crowd during England games.
Southgate is quoted as saying “Declan is usually in most memes that get posted on social media in one way or another. I think we needed to be a little bit careful in how our interaction with the crowd was the other day.”
Declan Rice had the perfect response for Hungary fans who pelted Raheem Sterling with plastic cups on Thursday night.
Sterling opened the scoring in the 55th minute but had plastic cups thrown at him by home supporters as he celebrated his goal.
As he ran over to congratulate his team-mate, Rice picked up one of the cups and pretended to drink from it before throwing it back on the ground in defiance.
‘Do you know what, until this day I have never had a beer and I am 22,’ Rice said ahead of this summer’s tournament.
‘That is the truth. Never had a pint. Don’t drink it.
‘Not really [a drinker]. But a pint? No.
‘I know it is off topic but I have never had a beer. People get surprised. I just don’t like the smell of it so I have never gone near it.’
Rice went on to score England’s fourth goal after Harry Kane and Harry Maguire had added to the scoreline earlier in the game.
His actions have spurred a variety of social media memes including the Green Street image above.
That was not the perfect response by any stretch of the imagination. Some might say pretty thoughtless. Full credit to Southgate.
Agreed mojen, they all went over to the corner where the Hungarian knuckle draggers were to celebrate the goal, then Rice does his cup thing, this is all akin to incitement, only makes the situation worse. One shot shows Kane gesturing to Rice to stop doing it, if Rice wants to be a proper captain he needs to grow up and not get carried away.
Youve got that bang on. Though spurs arent my favourites full marks to Kane. What gets me is the media seem to think it was acceptable. Not in my book.