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Football

25th Jun 2018

Martin O’Neill comments put England victory into serious perspective

Harsh, but maybe true!

Ben Kiely

Football is coming home, is it? Anyone who thinks that should listen to what Martin O’Neill has to say.

The England fans that are getting ahead of themselves should hear Martin O’Neill out. Following their national team’s 6-1 thumping of Panama in the World Cup on Sunday, quite a few of them lost the run of themselves.

Despite the Central American team living up to their expected role of group whipping boys, the ‘football is coming home’ brigade came out in force following the game. Sure, the team played well and got a big victory. However, anything other than an absolute hammering would have been a cataclysmic failure.

Gareth Southgate knows it, the fans know it and, of course, Martin O’Neill is well aware too.

MON’s got a game for Panama

During ITV’s World Cup coverage on Monday, O’Neill shared his thoughts on the Panama national team. Spoiler alert: he doesn’t think very highly of them.

“Those are the fans talking about winning the competition – that young fella that’s obviously just come out of the pub.”

“With the greatest respect to Panama, where I live, I go down and watch the local u-17 team. It’s a local side. I go down sometimes to watch them play. They’ve had a really bad season. They’ve lost almost every single game.”

“But, what I’m going to do is for their preseason next season, I’m going to ask them to play Panama for them to get their confidence up.” 

If Panama need a game after the World Cup, O’Neill’s got them covered!