Rio hails ‘man mountain’ thriving away from Man Utd

Will Ford
Rio Ferdinand Man Utd
Rio Ferdinand Man Utd

Rio Ferdinand says Harry Maguire “looks so comfortable in international football” and hailed the “man mountain” for his displays in an England shirt.

Maguire missed England’s opening two group games through injury but has been superb on his return to the side.

The Manchester United centre-back scored a towering header in England’s brilliant 4-0 win over Ukraine on Saturday.


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And Ferdinand reserved special praise for the defender after the game.

“Harry Maguire looks so comfortable at international football,” Ferdinand said.

“In an England shirt he looks like a man mountain to me. He comes out with the ball and picks the right passes.

“He always tries to come out, bring someone to him and then play the ball and that is the difference.

“He wants to commit someone and that is the difference between him and other centre-backs.”

Maguire said it was a “great feeling” to reach a second semi-final in three years but insisted he and his teammates have unfinished business and will quickly turn their attention to the clash with Denmark on Wednesday.

“It’s a great feeling. Back-to-back semi-finals at a major tournament,” he said.

“It’s a great achievement but we don’t stop here. We’ve got another big game coming up and we want to go further this time than we did at the World Cup.

“Of course it’s a great feeling to win here and the way we’ve done it as well shows the big progress that we’re making as a country so long may the improvement continue.”

Maguire added: “We have great belief in the dressing room.

“The first half was tough, we got the early goal we wanted and they caused a few problems with their shape and they changed it a few times in the first half.

“But the second goal settled us down a lot and from then on we controlled the game really well and got the third and fourth which I think we deserved on the night.

“It was an impressive performance in the end and now we’ve got to rest, recover and we’ve got another big one coming up.”