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Slaven Bilic takes dig at Ireland players after Martin O’Neill joke

Published 22:33 1 Jul 2018 BST

Updated 22:49 1 Jul 2018 BST

Simon Lloyd
Slaven Bilic takes dig at Ireland players after Martin O’Neill joke

Homesport

Look, we're not suggesting Slaven Bilic and Martin O'Neill aren't the best of buds here...

Nope, not at all.... It's just quite a few other folk are. Both were in the ITV studio for Croatia's nervy last-16 win over Denmark on Sunday evening. The game had finished 1-1 after extra-time, Kasper Schmeichel denying Luka Modric's penalty at the death. The Leicester City goalkeeper was able to pull off a couple more saves in the shoot-out, but it wasn't enough - Croatia sealing their passage to the quarter-finals and a semi-final with Russia. Naturally, this was a proud moment for Bilic - an ex Croatian international and the country's manager between 2006 and 2012. Speaking afterwards, he set about explaining how much it meant to his nation. "We are a small country," he began, only for O'Neill to interrupt. "You've told us that so many times," the Ireland boss appeared to say before muttering something else. Bilic replied by acknowledging that Croatia was, in fairness, bigger than Ireland. "Much bigger," O'Neill added. "Better football players," Bilic added, the laughter of Mark Pougatch and Lee Dixon subsiding slightly... Here, watch. Although it may not be intentional, it does seem a little tense for a couple of seconds... And again, while we're not saying the pair have issues with one another, plenty of people on Twitter were doing exactly that. https://twitter.com/WelsbyElton/status/1013525379976450049 https://twitter.com/eddychemical/status/1013526815028187137 https://twitter.com/gzmo38/status/1013529426808762370 https://twitter.com/tiddy88/status/1013529265197940736 https://twitter.com/AlessioBianco/status/1013528445182148609 https://twitter.com/Alex_jc9200/status/1013528284741750787  

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Slaven Bilic takes dig at Ireland players after Martin O'Neill joke