Pickford gives Courtois jibe short shrift
JORDAN PICKFORD has hit back at Thibaut Courtois after the Belgium goalkeeper publicly belittled England’s No 1. Everton’s Pickford emerged as the hero in Moscow on Tuesday night, his exceptional save from Carlos Bacca in a tense shootout setting up England’s euphoric win over Colombia. England’s first shootout triumph since Euro 1996 brought a positive end to an intense few days for Pickford. Chelsea keeper Courtois blasted Pickford’s performance after Belgium’s 1-0 victory over England in Nizhny Novgorod last week — even accusing his rival of being too short. But Pickford responded: ‘It doesn’t annoy me. I don’t care if I’m not the biggest keeper because it’s about being there in the moment and making the save — and I was. ‘I used my top hand to save the penalty. I got criticised about using the top hand but I don’t think I’ll be getting criticised about it now. I know if I can do better. It doesn’t take people to criticise me. ‘I had a right go at saving Adnan Januzaj’s shot last week. If I saved it people would say, “what a save”. We’ve moved on from Belgium and beaten Colombia — now it’s Sweden to look forward to.’ The win over Colombia offered manager Gareth Southgate a taste of redemption for his infamous penalty miss in England’s Euro 96 semi-final shootout defeat by Germany. But Pickford insists that had no influence, saying: ‘What was it, ’96? Exactly. In football you can always lose a shootout. It’s about trying to win one.’ Pickford wasn’t the only England player who had the last laugh. Raheem Sterling was singled out for some rough treatment. At half-time, a member of the Colombia backroom team purposely barged into Sterling as he headed for the tunnel. ‘I just looked back at him,’ Sterling said. ‘They were trying everything to get into our heads but we kept cool.’