Declan Rice, an English midfielder, has explained why he didn’t enjoy his goal against Ireland and thought the Dublin fans had every right to boo him.

In the 11th minute, Rice scored England’s first goal with a first-time finish inside the box.

Even though his friends were yelling at him, the Arsenal player put up his hands as if to say sorry.

This was a goal that had been in the works for almost five years, since Rice moved his national team from Ireland to England in February 2019.

Before the change, Rice played in three matches for Ireland but turned down more calls to play for the Three Lions instead.

But the 25-year-old insisted that he would “never” celebrate against the country he used to play for, and he gave a touching reason for this.

“Obviously it felt great to score,” Rice told beIN Sports after the game. “But I wasn’t going to celebrate.”

“My family is Irish.” My grandmother and grandfather are no longer with me, so I don’t think it would have been right to party with them. My dad was also here. 

“Of course, scoring was great, but I wanted to focus on getting back into the game and scoring more goals.”

Rice said that he and Grealish didn’t talk about the reaction they thought they would get before the game.

Yet, Rice didn’t care how long it had been since he switched foreign teams. He thought Irish fans could react however they wanted.

“The last few weeks have been crazy,” Rice said.

“This took place six or seven years ago.” It seems like a very long time ago. A lot of the Irish boys and I get along great. I haven’t done anything wrong.

“Of course the fans feel a certain way, and that’s fine.”