Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford was undoubtedly one of England’s major heroes as Gareth Southgate’s men booked their World Cup quarter-final spot.
In a World Cup which has seen very few negative things been said about England’s squad and performances, Jordan Pickford has, probably harshly, seemingly had more questions asked of him than any of his teammates have faced.
The Everton man had done little wrong during the group-stages, but there was some criticism for the way that can palm the ball back into the danger area when making saves.
But following England’s last 16 tie with Colombia on Tuesday night, there is no doubt that Pickford is now going to be considered one of the main heroes in Gareth Southgate’s squad.
The Toffees ace made an incredible save in the final stages of normal time to deny Mateus Uribe’s superb long-range volley. Unfortunately, the stop was overshadowed as Colombia managed to score from the resulting corner. But that just left Pickford with another chance to make himself the hero as the game went to a penalty shootout.
The scoreline was 3-3 heading into both teams’ fifth spot-kick, but Pickford produced a stunning save from Carlos Bacca to allow Eric Dier to score the kick that takes England to a quarter-final with Sweden.
In the aftermath, there was unsurprisingly an incredible amount of praise for the Toffees ace on social media, but amongst the tweets came a message from Everton teammate Theo Walcott, while Wayne Rooney – who, of course, has just sealed his move away from Goodison Park – only needed one word to sum up what the large majority of the country now thinks of Pickford.
Here are the messages that both men sent to Pickford following the Colombia win…
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