Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer slam Jack Grealish moment as England lose to Italy

Pundits have hit out at a controversial moment involving Aston Villa captain Jack Grealish in Sunday’s Euro 2020 final between England and Italy.

The Italians claimed the trophy at Wembley in dramatic fashion, defeating England 3-2 on penalties after the game ended 1-1.

Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka missed their spot-kicks for England, with Italy’s Andrea Belotti and Jorginho denied by Jordan Pickford.

Gareth Southgate introduced all three of those players from the bench, with Rashford and Sancho brought on specifically to take penalties in the dying moments of extra-time.

Another player used from the bench was Jack Grealish. The Aston Villa captain only started one of England’s seven games but made an impact off the bench in the final.

Grealish was fortunate to escape injury after being on the end of a rough challenge from Jorginho and BBC Sport’s pundits Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer believe referee Björn Kuipers should have sent the Chelsea midfielder off.

“Very aggressive,” said Lineker. “I saw a red card in this tournament when someone kicked the ball and followed through. This looked worse.”

Shearer added: “He should have been shown a red card. He was fortunate to be on the pitch. Careless and over the top of the ball. It’s endangering the safety of the opponent. It should have been a red card.”