Stuart Pearce has been keen to praise one Arsenal player who has proven to be one of the shining lights for his country at Euro 2024.
Mikel Arteta has transformed Arsenal into title challengers with the gunners challenging for the Premier League trophy but missing out to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City on both occasions.
This has led to the continued improvement of his players with William Saliba, Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka amongst some of the names who have excelled for club and country this season.
For Saka, in particular, the English winger has enjoyed a brilliant 12 months and has been hailed for his ‘magnificent’ moment against Switzerland.
Arsenal ace’s moment of redemption at Euro 2024
After what was the nadir of Saka’s career back in 2021 as he saw his penalty saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma which led Italy to victory at the 2021 European Championship, it has been a redemptive time for the winger.
During the quarter final victory over Switzerland, which was settled by a penalty shootout, Saka got his moment of redemption as confidently fired the penalty into the back of the net as the Three Lions advanced into the semi-finals of the tournament.
It was a sweet moment of redemption for the English winger who scored 20 times for the Gunners in all competitions last season.
Pearce praises ‘magnificent’ Saka
Speaking on talkSPORT, former England left-back Stuart Pearce, who missed a penalty at Italia 1990, was keen to praise Saka.
“Moral courage was there for all to see. Fantastic for the young man. He took a lot of abuse after missing a penalty a couple of years ago,” Pearce said.
Social media is very prevalent nowadays so he’d have suffered a lot more abuse than certainly I did in my time.
“But magnificent for him to stand up and do that. I had no doubts he would be one of the five penalty takers.
“They do their homework relentlessly with England. For him to stand up and score, yes it helped the England team out.