Jamie Carragher escalated his war of words with Rio Ferdinand by calling him a "clown" for thinking Inter should've had a penalty in their thrilling Milan derby Champions League semi-final win.
The Liverpool legend also disagreed with ex-team-mate Steven Gerrard, although Carragher refused to label him a clown because he was "an attacking player." During the first half of Inter's rampant 2-0 victory at the San Siro on Wednesday, the Nerazzurri were initially given the chance to increase their first-leg advantage when Lautaro Martinez went tumbling down inside the penalty area.
VAR, however, showed there was little contact from AC Milan centre-back Simon Kjaer and referee Jesus Gil overturned his original decision. On commentary for BT Sport, Ferdinand still believed that it was "100 per cent" a penalty, with the Manchester United hero describing it as "stonewall."
Carragher, on the other hand, was pleased to see the decision overturned. On punditry duty for US broadcaster CBS Sports, the former Liverpool defender declared: "I think anyone out there who is watching the replay, seeing what VAR do and still believe that is a penalty, they must be a clown."
When fellow pundits Thierry Henry and Micah Richards each reacted with stunned expressions, host Kate Abdo weighed in and cheekily asked: "Who you calling a clown, Jamie?"
When CBS brought up a graphic of Gerrard's thoughts on the incident, Carragher argued: "He was an attacking player, wasn't he? He was liable a little bit to go down himself under a little bit of contact - always contact, never a dive. I can understand where he's coming from.
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"When players in my position who were defenders - other defenders, English defenders - who are commentating on the game... I can understand attackers thinking it was a penalty if you (Henry) did, and Stevie was an attacker.
"Maybe he felt there was a little bit of contact. But as a defender, we have to stick together, don't we? And I just felt people were getting a little bit carried away thinking it was a penalty."
After being asked by Richards to "name names," Carragher replied with no hesitation: "Rio Ferdinand. I'm happy to call him a clown." His response left Henry gobsmacked and covering his face with a piece of paper, while a giggling Richards added: "I don't want a part of this!"
Both Carragher and Ferdinand had plenty of people who agreed with them. Ex- Chelsea winger Pat Nevin, though, reckoned that justice was served and AC Milan were rightly given a reprieve after a dismal start to the game in which they conceded twice in the opening 11 minutes, giving the Rossoneri a mammoth task in next Tuesday's second leg.
"He absolutely tried to con the referee," Nevin scorned in reference to Martinez on BBC Radio 5 Live. "He felt a hand on his waist and threw himself down. I am delighted the referee changed his mind."
It's not the first time Carragher and Ferdinand have found themselves on opposite sides of the fence, most often clashing over the impact of Cristiano Ronaldo during his ill-fated second spell at Man United. The pair most recently clashed when Carragher described current Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk as "far better" than Nemanja Vidic, Ferdinand's old centre-back partner at United.
Carragher had pointed to Vidic's torment at the hands of former Liverpool striker Fernando Torres in 2009 and 2010. "I see Jamie Carragher tweeted something about Van Dijk being better than Vidic," Ferdinand hit back on his FIVE YouTube channel. "I think Torres scored three goals in 15 games against Vidic.
"I think it's a bit of a myth, he had a couple of dodgy moments in those games and he got sent off a couple of times but that's been amplified into saying he got tortured every time he played against Torres which wasn't the case. [Marcus] Rashford 's got six goals in 13 games against Liverpool, does that mean he's tortured Van Dijk?"
We await Ferdinand's latest response.
