Joe Gomez booed by England supporters

Joe Gomez was booed by England fans in their EURO 2020 qualifier match against Montenegro.

Joe Gomez was the recipient of boos by the England supporters in a match against Montenegro that saw the Three Lions officially qualify for the Euro 2020 tournament.

This is following the altercation between him and Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling’s “disturbance” in camp that saw Sterling be dropped by Gareth Southgate for this match.

The Manchester City player took to social media to stick up for his teammate.

According to The Guardian, he said,

"“Joe hasn’t done anything wrong  & for me to see someone who keeps his head down and work hard especially after a difficult week for him to be booed when he came on was wrong. I’ve taken full responsibility and accepted the consequence.”"

The altercation between the two players prior to the match came after the Liverpool match against Manchester City where Liverpool came out on top and all but sealed the Premier League title.

The match was not without its controversy as a few calls went against City and Sterling said that the emotions from that match unfortunately carried over to the national team.

England manager Gareth Southgate also came out in defense of the Liverpool player.

According to The Times’ Henry Winter, he said,

"“I am hugely disappointed for Joe. Joe had done nothing wrong. No England player should ever be booed when they are wearing the shirt. All the players are particularly disappointed with that.”"

The Telegraph report that Gomez was “devastated” after being booed and that his teammates were both stunned and angry as the booing could be heard as Gomez was warming up to get ready.

Despite Sterling accepting responsibility for the initial confrontation, Gomez still felt the brunt of the anger from supporters. One explanation may be because Sterling is an attacker and Gomez a defender. As strange as it may sound, fans tend to side with someone who scores goals as opposed to someone who plays on defense.

For  Southgate, it may be troubling as now there seems to be a divide within supporters. The rivalry between Manchester City and Liverpool has been heightened the past few seasons. Inevitably even neutrals will take a side.

We’ve seen this type of division happen in Spain with Barcelona and Real Madrid. While the rivalry in England has not reached that level yet, Southgate is going to need to be aware of it and try to keep the unity that has been a symbol for this England team.

The team’s next match is against Kosovo where Sterling is set to feature. We shall see what kind of reception he gets as well as Gomez.