John McGinn calls out Fabrizio Romano over social media post after Scotland win | OneFootball

John McGinn has pulled Fabrizio Romano up after the transfer expert made a blunder on social media after Scotland’s 1-0 win over Haiti.

McGinn scored the only goal of the game for the Scots in their first World Cup game since 1998 to claim their first victory on the biggest stage in football in 36 years.

The three points was vital with much tougher tests to come against Morocco and Brazil in Group C, but it was a nervy affair and time will tell if Scotland come to regret only scoring the one goal against one of the weaker sides in the tournament.

Scotland qualified for both Euro 2020 and Euro 2024 but failed to make it out of the group on either occasion, and after being named Man of the Match for his display on Saturday, McGinn insisted he’s desperate to ensure they don’t leave the World Cup with regrets.

“These opportunities don’t come around too often,” he said. “We’ve said before at major tournaments, did we bring our best? Did we leave the tournament saying we could have done more or we could have shown more?

“That’s what I tried to bring to the game tonight. Sometimes things didn’t come off but I promised myself driving up to the stadium that I would be positive and try things. If they didn’t come off, get the ball and try it again.

“That’s what I felt the lads could do more, we did at times, but the good thing for us is we’ve got more gears to go up.

“The crucial thing tonight was, Haiti score a lot of goals and are dangerous up front, so kept a clean sheet, which is very important.”

The Aston Villa star later took to social media to comment on a post from Romano, who announced ‘Scott [sic] McGinn’ had been named Man of the Match.

‘Just as well I don’t get any moves big man,’ wrote McGinn in response.

‘A pub player’

McGinn is one of Scotland’s most important players and was in fine form for Villa this season, contributing ten goals and eight assists from midfield in all competitions to help Villa to fourth in the Premier League and to the Europa League title, scoring a brace in the semi-final against Nottingham Forest.

It’s therefore something of a surprise that Manchester United legend Roy Keane labelled the 31-year-old a “pub player” on the Stick To Football podcast ahead of the World Cup.

Keane said: “He’s one of these fellas, when he’s bad, when he has his bad days, he does look like a pub player.

“When he’s off it, he’s shocking. When he’s bad, wow.”

“I’ve watched him long enough. And the stats are, when he’s in the team week in week out, you go ‘if these managers all like him..’”