“I can’t believe they allowed him anywhere near it” – Rio Ferdinand slams Lovren’s free-kick decision

"You must be really courageous to do that."

Shooters shoot, defenders defend and keepers make saves... it is the natural order of things and it shouldn't be disturbed, otherwise chaos would assume on the footballing world. When you look at the Croatia team, the talent that is dripping from it, with the names they have and the things they're capable of doing with a football, it's incredible. Now, Dejan Lovren may not fall into that category, but he is a winner. The defender has bagged a European cup, Premier League and Club World Cup with his former Liverpool team, and he was an essential part of the national side that reached the World Cup final in 2018. However, even the most diehard Lovren fan wouldn't pick him as the man to step up and hit a very scoreable free-kick, especially when you look at the other options at Croatia's disposal.

At half-time, BBC's Gary Lineker raised the question: "When you've got a team with Perišić, Modrić, people like that - then you have a free-kick 25 yards out and Lovren steps forward, who is a central defender...why?"

[caption id="attachment_230165" align="alignnone" width="594"]  (Photo by Petr Josek - Pool/Getty Images)[/caption] Former England and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand didn't have any sympathy or admiration for his fellow defender and was in disbelief when he seen the centre-back step forward.

"I actually can't believe they allowed him to get anywhere near it. You got to understand your role in the team, and who you are. He's not a free-kick taker in training, never mind on the European stage."

Former Euros winner Jürgen Klinsmann compared the situation to a different world class player opting to not take a free-kick despite being the obvious choice. "It would be similar to taking away the free-kick from Cristiano Ronaldo", said the German. "You must be really courageous to do that." Oh... he missed by the way.