Italy won the European Championships for the first time since 1968 after a penalty shootout victory over England at the iconic Wembley in what turned out to be a pulsating final. After a 1-1 draw, Italy defeated England 3-2 in a penalty shootout to win the Euro 2020 championship.
For England in the penalty shootout, Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jaden Sancho failed to get the ball into the goal post and with that England's dream of a second title to add to the 1966 World Cup win was also shattered.
Some angry fans lashed out on the England trio as they were subjected to racial abuse. Reacting to this, former India star player Yuvraj Singh and eight-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt showered their support for The Three Lions stars.
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Yuvraj Singh took to Twitter and wrote,"I’ve gone thru my ups & downs in sport. But as a team,u win & lose together!Unfortunately Eng lost,Italy was a better team on the day.Sad to hear wat @MarcusRashford, @BukayoSaka87, @Sanchooo10 have to go thru! V stand by u lads!Don’t forget that sport is meant to unite & not hate!"
In an interview with Reuters, Usain Bolt said, “You can be upset at a person for missing because we are human, but if you’re going to bring race into it, then it has no place in football or just in general.”
Usain Bolt said the abuse directed at players was “horrifying”. He added, “First of all that’s horrible to know… for me it’s very tough to see these things. As an African and a Black person, I can tell it must be rough on them and you can’t blame these guys, they don’t make the decision of who takes the penalties.”
He further said, “It (racial abuse) was very unfair and I can’t believe this is where football is headed, I’ve loved football through my entire career, I’ve followed all these players … so it tough to see something like that going on.”