Wayne Rooney has compared Jude Bellingham’s match-winning performance in England’s 3-2 World Cup last-16 victory over Mexico to iconic Champions League displays by Steven Gerrard and Roy Keane, rating the Real Madrid midfielder a “10 out of 10.”
Bellingham, 23, scored twice in 98 seconds at the Azteca to secure a hard-fought win despite England finishing with 10 men, setting up a quarter-final clash with Norway as Thomas Tuchel’s side chase their first major trophy since 1966.
“I said Jude was going to have a game when we’d need him to drag us through,” Rooney said on his Wayne Rooney podcast.
“You look at Gerrard against AC Milan in 2005, Keane against Juventus for United—they dragged their teams through. That was Bellingham’s one—the timing, desire, work rate, hunger.”
Rooney also highlighted a last-ditch tackle from Bellingham to deny Mexico defender Cesar Montes a first-half equaliser, adding:
“Defensively he’s not always in the right positions, but his desire to get back and help teammates—that was everything. It was the right game to give him a 10.”
