Eni Aluko has made light of her mathematical error on ITV after colleagues leapt to the defence of the former Lioness.
Aluko is part of ITV's punditry team for the World Cup but found herself being mocked on social media after an error on Monday night. Brazil made light work of South Korea, but before the contest, the former Chelsea star was talking up the quality of Richarlison.
The Brazilian has been in impressive form for his country as of late, scoring 19 times in 40 games before adding to that total against South Korea. Aluko was addressing his strike rate and said: "You do the math, that’s a goal a game". She was widely ridiculed for her comments, but has seen the funny side 24 hours on.
Aluko was part of ITV's set-up for Portugal's last-16 clash with Switzerland and, speaking ahead of kick-off, said: "[Breel] Embolo up front, two goals already this World Cup, he’s scored seven in fifteen for Monaco this season - I’ll let everyone else do the maths on that one!"
Several of those who work alongside Aluko have hit back at her critics. Former Arsenal and England striker Ian Wright said: “I've made countless mistakes live on air. The replies to this are horrible. You man are so pressed by women in football that you take pure pleasure in this. Grow up.”
Channel 5 presenter Dan Walker added: "We all know what she meant and if either of the blokes alongside her had said it… it would have been ignored. The bile beneath this says a lot more about the authors than Eni Aluko. P.S. I once called the Pentagon an 'octagonal shaped building in Washington'."
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Aluko herself has addressed her live error, confessing maths wasn't a strong suit. She wrote on Twitter : "Got myself a First class law degree, 102 caps & a Doctorate but Maths wasn’t always my forte. Nearly 1 in 2 games is the math on Richarlison. But some of you weirdo twitterati knew that already. Might also learn from the rest of the analysis conveniently ignored."
The 35-year-old has previously spoken out against online abuse and harrassment, insisting that more has to be done against those who feel they can speak in a hateful manner without fear of consequence.
"We live in a world where everybody thinks they can say what they want without consequence," Aluko she said on the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme. "You can say what you want in your living room without consequence, but publicly there has to be consequence for what you say because it has a real impact on people."
