I’VE GOT BOUNCE JACK ABILITY
Gutted Butland vows to keep fighting for Three Lions chance
the England boss with Jordan Pickford, Aaron Ramsdale and Sam Johnstone selected to vie for the No.1 shirt for friendlies with Brazil and Belgium later this month.
The snub could have taken the wind out of the 30-yearold’s sails ahead of the monster Europa clash with Benfica.
But Butland showed his class by putting in another flawless display against the Portuguese champions.
And the keeper said: “I haven’t had any discussions (with Southgate). If your name is being chucked in then you’re doing something right and when I found out I wasn’t in the squad it was back to normal and try and continue doing what I’ve been doing here.
“That’s the only reason I’ve been in the discussion in the first place. The minute it was out, it was all eyes on this game. Could I, should I doesn’t really matter. I’ve worked hard enough and done enough.
“Three fantastic goalkeepers will go and I’ll just keep knocking on the door.”
A second blow arrived hours after his England shun as Rangers tumbled out of the Europa League after a titanic battle with Benfica.
But Butland insists he was proud of his team-mates.
Rangers were undone by a second-half counter-attack that allowed Rafa Silva to bury the ball past the keeper in a one on one. Other than that classy finish there was nothing between the sides over the two legs and Butland said: “We’re disappointed because the lads across the two legs were unbelievable.
“We dominated the game here and drew at their place with a questionable penalty and own goal and a counter attack from one of our corners has undone us. I’m immensely proud of the lads. Nobody gave us a chance but we held our own and we probably deserved more.
“If you’re playing against a team like Benfica you might put more emphasis on corners because they might have more possession and dominate the game but that wasn’t the case.
“We played some really good football and got into some really good areas and caused them a lot of problems without that finishing touch.
“We’ve got great delivery and sometimes things might drop for you but we were brilliant and could have scored in many other ways. It wouldn’t have been a smash and grab at all – it was a really good performance.
“We’re playing two games a week and they are doing the same, it’s rained for about 72 hours solid but the pitch was in fantastic condition. The boys pushed hard, two really good sides, and we were brilliant and barely gave up anything at all apart from the goal.”
A week on from the controversial handball decision against John Souttar that led to Benfica’s first goal in Lisbon, VAR was again against Rangers as the video refs overturned an offside which had initially curtailed Silva’s celebrations.
But Butland said: “It must have been a fine line but I haven’t seen it if it was close or not but if VAR came to the right decision then we have to accept that. It was just a shame to concede a goal like that.”
Meanwhile, Souttar insists the pain of the defeat will linger for days – but admits Clement’s players have no time to feel sorry for themselves with a trip to Dundee on Sunday the next leg of a frenetic title race.
The defender said: “We’re out of Europe so it’s not great. It’s fresh so we’re gutted. With the effort we put in over the two legs, they’ve had chances, we’ve had chances and I thought we played well especially on the ball.
“But goals win games and unfortunately we’ve not taken our chances.
“We will look back in the coming days and I’m sure it will look a bit better but right now it’s raw. “So it’s gutting. Nights like tonight you want to go through and win. There were moments we could have.
“But goals win games, they score on the counter-attack and we need to dust ourselves down for Sunday.”
No one gave us a chance but we held our own and I’m so proud of the lads
JACK BUTLAND CAN TAKE HEART FROM EUROPA EXIT