England star hits out at Gary Lineker with 'PG' dig as war of words breaks out at Euro 2024
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The 63-year-old criticised the Three Lions after their 1-1 draw with Denmark earlier in the week
England star Jarrod Bowen has hit back at Gary Lineker after the BBC presenter called the Three Lions 's**t' in their 1-1 draw with Denmark on Thursday.
Harry Kane opened the scoring at the Frankfurt Arena, with the Bayern Munich star bagging in the 13th minute of the clash.
But Morten Hjulmand's thunderbolt effort earned a point for Denmark on an afternoon where they were deserving of all three.
England were abject during the clash in Germany, sparking fears that they won't be able to win the European Championships this summer.
England star Jarrod Bowen has hit back at Gary Lineker after the BBC presenter called the Three Lions 's**t' in their 1-1 draw with Denmark on Thursday.
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Lineker branded them 's**t' on The Rest is Football podcast, with other pundits such as Roy Keane, Micah Richards and Alan Shearer criticial as well.
Yet Bowen, speaking ahead of England's Euro 2024 clash with Slovenia on Tuesday, has now hit back at the BBC man.
"I didn’t know it was as strong as that," said the West Ham star, who has featured twice off the bench at the tournament so far.
"I thought his podcast might be a little bit more PG. But they’re more than entitled to speak about the games.
"They’ve played for their country and they’ve played at a high level."
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Bowen was keen to point out that England remain unbeaten, however.
With four points from a possible six, they're virtually guaranteed to be playing in the knockout stages of the competition.
England have started slowly at previous tournaments, something that's become a theme of Gareth Southgate's time in charge.
But Bowen insists the best is yet to come and added: "I think the sign of a really good side is when you’re not playing as well as you know you can, but you make sure you don’t lose the game.
"We’re sat here with four points. There’s a lot of noise, a lot of uproar, as if we’re sat here with two defeats and bottom of the table.
"But the reality is we’re top of the table with lots of confidence going into the last group game, where we know we need to win.
"We look forward to that challenge on Tuesday night."
Bowen is aware of the negativity surrounding England on social media.
But he's revealed players are being cautious with what they read as they look to drown out the noise from outside.
The forward said: "Of course you see it, but there’s only so much you want to read before you either end up replying or saying something you don’t want to say.
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England star Jarrod Bowen has responded to criticism of the Three Lions after two flat showings at Euro 2024 so far
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"So you’re controlling what you want to see because it can affect your mood and put a negative spin on it, when you’re sat here after two games, undefeated and in a really good position.
"We know what we have and what we can do going forward. We know we can be better."
And Bowen says England players, as well as Southgate and members of his staff, are all sticking together.
"It’s always important to have those conversations, especially when you don’t win a game," he said.
England star Jarrod Bowen has come off the bench in two Euro 2024 matches so far
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"You always think, 'What could we have done differently? What did we do well? What did we do not so well? What went wrong?'.
"During the debrief we all sit down and have a chat about it together and then work on those things that didn’t go so well on the training pitch.
"There are always conversations about it, because we always want to improve and be better."