Jamie Carragher has poked fun at his punditry colleague Gary Neville by mocking his comments about Lionel Messi.
Messi produced an inspired performance on Tuesday night to help Argentina beat Croatia 3-0 and book their place in the World Cup final in Qatar. He opened the scoring from the penalty spot and assisted Julian Alvarez’s second goal with a magical run which bamboozled Josko Gvardiol.
The 35-year-old forward will now have the chance to avenge the pain of 2014, when Argentina were beaten in the final by Germany. Messi now has five goals and three assists in six matches at the World Cup and has been the driving force behind Lionel Scaloni’s side.
His performances might have come as a surprise to Neville, who was absolutely scathing of his style of play earlier in the tournament. Carragher was quick to remind him of his comments by tweeting a video clip following the Croatia win.
Carragher tweeted : “The back track after this game & before the final will be sensational from @GNev2 #Messi.” In the attached clip, Neville berated Messi for his apparent laziness and claimed opponents are no longer scared of him.
He said: “Messi the other night – he was walking around the pitch. I said at half-time ‘people don’t fear him anymore’. They don’t! When he’s on the ball now, people go and take it off him, go and tackle him.”
Neville tried to fire back at the former Liverpool defender, replying : “Always go early don’t you! Like you did with Spain.” His comments appear to be a dig at Carragher for lavishing praise on Spain, and midfielder Pedri in particular, earlier in the World Cup.
During Spain’s 7-0 thrashing of Costa Rica in the group stages, Carragher declared Pedri to be “the player of the tournament so far”.
Messi was sensational against Croatia. He blasted his penalty into the top corner to make it 1-0 before saving his best until the second half, producing a trademark run to set up Alvarez for a tap-in.
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Nevertheless, Neville seemingly decided to double down on his point about the Paris Saint-Germain star’s work rate. “At PSG there’s three of them hanging up there doing nothing,” Neville said on ITV.
“He’s got subservience here. The rest of them are putting in a massive, massive shift for him, and that’s what he needs. At PSG there’s two or three others up there, and to be fair you can’t carry three, four of them without the ball.
“You can carry one without the ball, and that’s what Argentina are doing, so well done to those other players, incredible in terms of what they’re doing.”
