Wayne Rooney believes Jude Bellingham’s performance against Mexico was reminiscent of heroic Champions League displays from Steven Gerrard and Roy Keane.
England midfielder Bellingham, 23, scored twice in 98 seconds as Thomas Tuchel’s side beat Mexico 3-2 despite finishing with 10 men in an epic World Cup clash at the Azteca.
The hard-fought victory set up a quarter-final tie with Norway as England go in search of their first major trophy since winning the tournament in 1966.
Former Three Lions striker Rooney likened Bellingham’s performance to Gerrard’s in helping Liverpool come from 3-0 down in the 2005 Champions League final against AC Milan and Keane’s renowned display against Juventus to inspire Manchester United to reach the 1999 European Cup final.
“I said Jude Bellingham was going to have a game when we’re going to need him to drag us through,” ex-United and Everton forward Rooney said on his BBC podcast.
“You look at Steven Gerrard against AC Milan in the 2005 Champions League final. Roy Keane against Juventus for Manchester United. They dragged the teams through them games.
“I felt like that was Bellingham’s one with them two goals – the timing of the goals, his desire, his work rate, his hunger.”
Gerrard scored the first goal as Liverpool came from 3-0 down at half-time to beat AC Milan in Istanbul on penalties and lift the trophy while Keane also scored against Juventus as United overturned a 3-1 aggregate deficit in an inspired display despite knowing a yellow card had ruled him out of the final that year.
Rooney rated Bellingham’s performance in the last-16 victory in Mexico’s capital as a ’10 out of 10′ given the ‘pitfalls’ which surrounded the game.
The Real Madrid star also pulled off a brilliant last-ditch tackle to deny Mexico defender Cesar Montes a goal that would have made it 2-2 on the stroke of half-time.
“At times defensively he’s not always in the right positions, but his desire to get back and put that last-minute tackle in and help his team-mates when they’re not maybe having the best game was everything,” added Rooney.
“I just felt when you get asked to mark them out of 10, you’re looking, thinking – could he have done a little bit more to get that mark up?
“I just felt it was the right game to give him a 10 out of 10.”
