Gary Neville initially couldn’t comprehend why tears were flowing down Jose Gimenez’s face in the 89th minute of France’s quarter-final clash with Uruguay.
Trailing by two goals to Les Bleus, Gimenez couldn’t hold back the emotion as he took his place in the wall for an Antoine Griezmann free-kick before it dawned on him that it was looking like Uruguay’s tournament had reached its conclusion.
The Atletico Madrid centre-half’s eyes welled up before Griezmann blazed his effort over the crossbar.
There was no sympathy from ITV commentator Gary Neville, however, as he criticised Gimenez for appearing to give up on the game with injury time looming.
Neville branded the tears “embarrassing” as he urged the defender to continue fighting for two late goals.
“Is he crying? What’s he crying for? What’s up with him? Five minutes to go yet,” Neville said.
“I’m all for emotion and passion but that’s embarrassing. Your team’s got five minutes, you can score two goals – get on with it.”
Neville knows all about what it takes to stage late comebacks, having played in the 1999 Champions League final when Manchester United scored two goals in time added on to overturn Bayern Munich.
While some viewers forgave Neville for his opinion on Gimenez’s early outpouring of emotion because of the fact that a refusal to give up was drilled in to him as a young full-back by Sir Alex Ferguson, others accused him of being insensitive to the image of a passionate professional coming to terms with the heartbreaking realisation of being eliminated from the World Cup.
Gary Neville saying It’s “embarrassing” that Gimenez is crying as Uruguay are most likely minutes from being knocked out of the World Cup, what do you expect, all he’s doing is showing how much the World Cup means to him and his country you twat🇺🇾👊🏽⚽️
— A a r o n (@AaronDorsett17) July 6, 2018
gimenez crying and neville calls him embarrassing. what a prick.
— 🌟 (@imyoongsus) July 6, 2018
https://twitter.com/HardAdz1/status/1015261906238570497
https://twitter.com/olumide_ot/status/1015261538305892353
Dear Gary Neville, I think Jose Gimenez is crying because he's into the last two minutes of playing for Oscar Tabarez, a man the Uruguay players love like a father. Emotion is allowed. #WorldCup #URU #FRA
— Sean Drury (@sean_drury95) July 6, 2018
Gary Neville laying it into Gimenez for crying is brilliant 😂
— Alex Philpott (@Alex_Philpott) July 6, 2018
Gary Neville shitting on Gimenez crying has me laughing so much.
— Dean Weymes (@Dean_Weymes) July 6, 2018
Gary Neville not very sympathetic for Gimenez crying. Love this man #WorldCup
— M🇺🇦 (@b0n0myt1res) July 6, 2018
https://twitter.com/MoeTweetzz/status/1015261256155062272
So Gary Neville was crying with happiness after England won on penalties.
Now calls Gimenez embarrassing for crying because Uruguay were going to be Knocked out of the WC. Doesn't add up.— Mikey1990 (@IAM2014__) July 6, 2018
Neville's been oddly poor on commentary today. Then again, his comment on Gimenez there suggests to me how little his generation of English players largely cared about playing for their country🤷♂️
— Dan Griffin (@GriffinDaniel) July 6, 2018
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