Lisandro Martinez And Cristian Romero Blast ‘Stupid’ Gary Neville After Argentina Beat England

Gary Neville is always getting slated for his football takes, but I’m not sure we’ve ever had a player call him “stupid” on live TV before.

Before the England v Argentina semi-final, Neville had branded Romero and Martinez ‘the best worst centre-halves in the world’ when talking about Argentina’s 3-2 victory over Egypt in the last-16.

Neville had said: ‘I do not see any way we won’t score at least 2 goals against Argentina. I call them the best-worst central defensive duo in the world”.

‘They give goals away constantly, but they don’t care about giving goals away because they’ll score goals at the other end. And they have massive personalities and they keep going.’

‘At that point in the game [when Egypt scored their second goal] you think Argentina are holding on for dear life.

‘They’re fighting for their lives and Romero is part of that comeback.

‘Why is he there? You always ask the question. Why is Martinez scoring in the last game?

‘They don’t give in and they fight, and they fight, and they fight.’

Sounds more like a compliment, to be fair? Even if he is questioning their defensive capabilities, he’s making the point that they’re fighters who will scrap to the end to ensure their team gets the W.

Well, either way, Romero and Martinez were not impressed with Neville’s comments and let it be known as they gave a joint interview after Argentina’s win v England last night.

Martinez told DSports Argentina: ‘We’re used to people always talking about us, it seems they just love talking about us,’ Martinez told DSports Argentina.

‘We don’t really respond, we just let our play on the pitch do the talking, always with respect.’

Asked about Neville’s comments, Romero said: ‘Lisandro and me, we were on fire before the game because of what Gary Neville said.

‘In England they love to speak before. We send him a big hug. I just hope that when I retire, I’m not as stupid as Gary Neville. I won’t criticise players.’

*Gary Neville voice*= Oooooh. It was pretty bold of him to predict England would put at least 2 past Romero and Martinez, to be fair. Of course they’re going to get fired up reading something like that before the game.

Although they really could have ripped into any England pundit at the end of the day because they were all feeling pretty confident…

In the end, it wasn’t to be.

Argentina will now play Spain in the World Cup final at 8pm BST on Sunday. No prizes for guessing who Gary Neville will be rooting for.

For the England fan who got a premature ‘World Cup Winners 2026’ tattoo, click HERE. There’s always one.