Mirror Football
October 3, 2026

The Gibraltar Football Association (GFA) have hit back at Roy Keane following his Croatia comparison after England's 7-0 rout. The official X account for the nation took aim at the Manchester United and Republic of Ireland legend, while poking fun at the infamous Saipan incident.
Keane was in the ITV Studio alongside Ian Wright and witnessed the Three Lions inflict Croatia's heaviest ever defeat with Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka netting a brace. Jude Bellingham, Anthony Gordon and Morgan Rogers also got in on the act as England continue to bounce back from their Nations League defeat to Spain at the beginning of the international break.
But it was when the 55-year-old was dissecting the performance from Thomas Tuchel's side, Keane compared Croatia's showing to one of Gibraltar's. The FIFA-ranked 202nd side in the world have been historically on the wrong end of some heavy defeats but they have come out swinging in response to the former midfielder.
Quote tweeting an ITV Sport clip of Keane drawing comparison between Croatia and Gibraltar, the Gibraltar FA account tweeted: "Do me a favour, Roy. If you’re going to mention Gibraltar, come visit us first. We’ll even let you stay the whole camp (wink emoji)."
Keane had expected Slaven Bilic's side to pose a firmer test for England but the World Cup semi-finalists brushed them aside in Rijeka.
His comments came when lauding Bellingham, he said: "The way he's progressing as a player, there's so much to come. At this moment in time, he's an amazing footballer, the package, the power.
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"There's so much to come from him, his leadership skills, his hunger and desire out of possession, he's such a young player, his desire to get into the box, he's making it so easy.
"Before the game, we were thinking (about) Croatia, they made them look like Gibraltar-type of team. Outstanding in every aspect, I think Bellingham can go on to be one of the greatest players of all time.
"Of course, if he avoids injuries but his attitude with England recently, I've praised him a lot but what he's doing out of possession lifts the players in the team, playing for Real Madrid doing brilliant things, that will inspire the players. He's a huge leader for them."
It is uncertain whether Keane will take the GFA up on their offer. They find themselves in the Nations League Group D with two points from their opening two matches after draws with Malta and Andorra.
They travel to Liechtenstein on Monday before locking horns with Andorra in next month's next batch of matches in the mini-international tournament.
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