Anthony Gordon speaks out on viral X-rated comment from Mexico manager Javier Aguirre

England’s Anthony Gordon has said he took Mexico coach Javier Aguirre’s X-rated heckle as a ‘compliment’.

Thomas Tuchel’s side put on their best performance of the tournament on Sunday evening at the Estadio Azteca.

The nail-biting game resulted in a 3-2 win for the Three Lions, who are now facing a quarter-final clash against Norway at the weekend.

The dramatic night also created several big talking points that had nothing to do with game play, after Jordan Henderson was left with a yellow card and a shock wrist injury, despite not playing in the game, and Harry Kane was seen seriously struggling to speak in a post-match interview after celebrating a little too hard on the pitch.

Another, somewhat bizarre moment that didn’t go unnoticed was when Mexico boss Aguirre bellowed Gordon’s name from the touchline and then shouted ‘f*** you’ at him before flashing him an odd-looking smile and then laughing.

Although fans only got to see a snippet of the interaction, it appeared as though Gordon took it in good humour and appeared to be laughing before the camera promptly moved on.

Clips of the interaction began to spread on social media on X, with some fans branding it their favourite moment of the World Cup - a bold claim in a tournament as dramatic as this one.

Sharing the clip one fan said: “It’s my favourite World Cup video. I”ve watched it 100 times and somehow every single time, I still smile.”

Someone else wrote: “I seriously can’t stop watching this. It’s the fact that the manager doesn’t even look at Gordon and his laugh afterwards.”

A third said: “I love the way Gordon has the banter to take it, as it was. Just a bit of fun.”

And it turns out that’s exactly how Gordon himself saw the interaction.

“It’s just a bit of fun,” he told the Press Association.

“With all the heat and tension around the game, it was a bit of fun. I’d just run the full-back down the line so it was a bit of a compliment from him. That’s how I took it anyway.

“He seemed like a good guy, he was talking to me and Jude (Bellingham) throughout the game. There was a lot of tension in the game so to speak to me and Jude, I quite liked it.”

Gordon went on to say that Bellingam got even more attention from Aguirre.

Gordon added: “I’ve never argued with a manager. Usually they say things like that when you’ve done something good and they give me a compliment, or a compliment in not such a nice way like that one. I’ve had it a couple of times.”

After securing a win against Mexico on their home turf, England are now set to take on Norway on 11 July at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.

The game kicks off at 5pm local time (10pm UK time).

If England wins, they’ll likely face Argentina in the semi-final in Atlanta on 15 July.