Wayne Rooney believes Pep Guardiola is to blame for teams trying to score the perfect goal at Euro 2024.

Guardiola has transformed English football since joining Manchester City, winning six league titles and the Champions League, after previously enjoying unprecedented success at Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

City consistently dominate possession and pick their opponents apart, and Rooney feels all teams want to play the same way, but are simply unable to replicate Guardiola's playing style.

As he analysed Belgium's goalless draw with Ukraine on Wednesday, Rooney told the BBC: 'What we're seeing here, not just with Belgium but with a lot of teams, with England and Holland at times, we're seeing this system which everyone seems to be playing. 

'Even though with players like Doku who plays out wide, no crosses go into the box.'

Wayne Rooney has blamed Pep Guardiola for teams trying to score the perfect goal

Rooney was asked by presenter Gary Lineker why sides were playing this way nowadays, and he replied: 'I think the game's got a lot more positional, trying to score the perfect goal. 

'I think it's Pep's fault!' he added with a laugh. 'He's brought that in. He's mastered it but everyone else seems to struggle to create clear-cut chances.'

A number of major European nations have struggled for goals at Euro 2024 so far.

Read More

EXCLUSIVE On today's EUROS DAILY: England were 'abysmal', so are they sleepwalking towards an early exit?

England managed to find the net just twice in the group stages, while Belgium also failed to score in two of their three matches.

The Netherlands did score four times, but drew a blank against France.

Meanwhile, Portugal could not find a breakthrough in their final group match with Georgia as they slipped to a shock 2-0 defeat despite dominating possession.

The group stage concluded on Wednesday night, with the last-16 ties now confirmed.

England will take on Slovakia, while Belgium face France, the Netherlands have been matched with Romania and Portugal must try to get past Slovenia.

If teams continue to follow Guardiola's blueprint, there could be plenty of tight, low-scoring games ahead as we enter the business end of the tournament.