Wayne Rooney says Hugo Ekitike's celebration which saw him sent off for a second yellow card against Southampton was "refreshing" despite being "silly". The Liverpool forward took his shirt off after scoring a late winner and will now be suspended for Saturday's visit to Crystal Palace. "Sometimes you have the emotion of football - sometimes when you score a goal you do get carried away and he's probably forgot he was on a yellow card I'd imagine," Rooney said on The Wayne Rooney show.
Wayne Rooney says Hugo Ekitike's celebration which saw him sent off for a second yellow card against Southampton was "refreshing" despite being "silly".
The Liverpool forward took his shirt off after scoring a late winner and will now be suspended for Saturday's visit to Crystal Palace.
"Sometimes you have the emotion of football - sometimes when you score a goal you do get carried away and he's probably forgot he was on a yellow card I'd imagine," Rooney said on The Wayne Rooney show.
"But it's silly if you're on a yellow card and you take your top off. All the players know you get booked for taking your top off.
"He's doing really well and it's probably a shootout for him and [Alexander] Isak to play and he's giving Isak the chance to come in and try and take his place because at the minute, he's scoring goals and he's in a good place so I'm sure he'll be devastated."
Asked about the nature of the celebration, Rooney added: " Don't you think that's refreshing?
"We've criticised teams for not playing strong teams and not wanting to really compete in the League Cup. You've got a player who's playing really well, he's just come into Liverpool, scoring goals and he's showing that passion and emotion of scoring a late goal in the League Cup.
"I think that's quite refreshing really, from where the Carabao Cup competitions have been in recent years.
"I'm not defending it because it is silly, but I'm saying what we've seen over recent years with VAR and players scoring goals and waiting to celebrate and stuff, I think it's actually refreshing to see someone celebrating a goal.
"He's been caught up in the emotion of scoring a goal and he'll probably regret it now, but I still think it's nice when you see that raw emotion when someone scores a goal."
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Category: General Sports
