Emotional scenes after his first goal.
Marcus Rashford has explained the significance of his celebration against Wales, following a masterclass of a performance on Tuesday night.
Rashford scored the first and the third goal on the night, the first of which was a smashing free-kick into the top corner just after the half-time break.
After he ran to the corner flag to celebrate passionately with his teammates, Rashford let the rest of the England players run back to their own half, while he took a moment to himself.
He dropped to his knees, pointed to the sky with both hands, and closed his eyes for a moment.
FT 🏴0-3🏴
A marvellous Marcus Rashford free kick put England on their way to topping Group B after a dismal performance from Wales.
📺Watch live now on @rte2 & @rteplayer: https://t.co/JYf06cJLAe#FIFAWorldCup #WALENG #RTESoccer pic.twitter.com/XvlAZRE1lm
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) November 29, 2022
It was an emotional and interesting moment, as it is not a celebration that Rashford does all too often, and he was asked about it after the game.
Marcus Rashford celebration vs Wales explained
He said: “I lost one of my friends a couple of days ago. He had quite a long battle with cancer. I’m pleased I scored for him, he was a big supporter and good friend of mine. He was someone who came into my life.”
Marcus Rashford, take a bow. pic.twitter.com/LiOLXqQaQB
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) November 29, 2022
Rashford picked up the Player of the Match award for his performance against Wales, which is all the more impressive when you take into account what he must have been going through over the past 48 hours or so.
This was Rashford’s first start of the tournament, after he came off the bench to score against Iran in the first game of the tournament.
With three goals, Rashford (at the time of writing) is the joint top scorer of the World Cup so far.
He will now be pushing to break into Gareth Southgate’s Starting XI for the Round of 16 game against Senegal, with stiff competition arising from the likes of Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka.
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