Maguire explains England celebration after being called “embarrassing” by Keane

Harry Maguire scored England’s opener on Friday night and appeared to respond to his critics with his celebration but the Man Utd skipper has addressed his reaction

Harry Maguire has claimed his goal celebration in England’s win over Albania wasn’t directed at anyone amid criticism from Roy Keane.

The Manchester United centre-half left his club troubles behind as he donned the Three Lions shirt.

He got the ball rolling early in the clash at Wembley as he headed home from a Reece James cross.

Maguire reeled away and cupped his ears as he celebrated, as if to question those who have hit out at his recent performances.

The United skipper has been under the spotlight at Old Trafford with the Red Devils enduring a poor run of form, which included a 5-0 reverse at the hands of Liverpool.

They have also struggled for clean sheets under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

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Keane has been among those who’ve criticised him and he was less than impressed with his celebration.

“I think he puts his hands to his ears like he’s shut the critics up, but I think that’s embarrassing,” he said on ITV .

Harry Kane scored a treble with Jordan Henderson also getting on the scoresheet as England ran out 5-0 winners.

Maguire was quizzed on his celebration after the came but said it “came naturally” and was adamant no one was the target of his actions.

He said: “It was a great ball from Reece. We’d worked on it, we knew the areas we could exploit and credit to all the staff for doing that.

“I managed to direct the header into the far post and I think when you play these games, the first goal is crucial and it comes quite a lot from set-plays. We knew we’d get a lot of set-plays and we had to be clinical with them.

“The celebration was a knee slide, it just came naturally to me. It’s an amazing feeling to score for my country.

“It wasn’t directed at anyone, it just came naturally to do that and open the scoring for England and get the important three points.”

Southgate added on Maguire’s celebration: “Is he a Hulk Hogan fan? I don’t know what the celebration was for. He’s a fabulous player, two months ago he was in the Euros team of the tournament.

“He’s rushed back because he’s the sort of player who has a huge conscience to help his club. You get lots of players who hide in the treatment room when pressure is on.

“He hasn’t done that and I have massive respect for that but you can go into matches not fully fit and you’re judged as fully fit in those moments.