Gary Neville leaves ITV pundits gobsmacked with Donald Trump remark after Lionel Messi incident
Gary Neville reacted to Lionel Messi's missed penalty for Argentina at the World Cup and referenced US President Donald Trump
Gary Neville left his fellow ITV colleagues in hysterics after a remark about Donald Trump and Lionel Messi during the coverage of Argentina vs Egypt at the World Cup. The last-16 tie between the two countries was taking place in Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon, with a place in the quarter-final up for grabs.
However, Argentina were on the back foot early in the match after Egypt took the lead thanks to a goal from Yasser Ibrahim.
The reigning world champions then had the opportunity to equalise in the first half after a penalty was awarded for a foul by Haissem Hassan on Nicolas Tagliafico.- Messi stepped up to take the penalty and saw his low effort saved by Egypt goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir.
The topic of Messi’s penalty miss was discussed during ITV’s half-time coverage, where Neville was joined by Ian Wright and Roy Keane.
Keane was the first to discuss the missed spot-kick, with the Manchester United legend stating that they believed in the studio that Messi would not find the back of the net.
"To be fair, we were watching it here and Wrighty - we didn't fancy him," Keane said. "We know his record isn't great.
"As Ally [McCoist] mentioned [in commentary], for a great player - almost lacking belief in himself, it's amazing."
The question was then posed to the panel as to whether anyone could step in to take Messi off penalty duty, which led to Neville replying: “[Donald] Trump?”, which led to laughter from the panel.
Get the latest World Cup news straight to your inbox by signing up to our Make Football Great Again newsletter now!
Wright then explained that any player would find it difficult to step up and to take penalties for Argentina in Messi's place due to his standing in the game.
"I can't imagine anybody," Wright said. “Can you imagine being in that dressing room? It's like saying to [Cristiano] Ronaldo: 'No, I'll take them'. [Lionel] Scaloni's not going to say that, either."
Neville then went on to add: "They're impossible, these players at that stature, to be able to communicate with around stuff like this.
"They want every penalty, they want every free-kick."
JOIN US ON FACEBOOK! Latest news, analysis and much more on Mirror Football's Facebook page
In the second half, Egypt thought they had doubled their advantage thanks to a goal from Ziko, only for the effort to be ruled out for a foul in the build-up. However, just minutes later Ziko did go on to score a second goal for Egypt to give his country a 2-0 lead in Atlanta.
However, Argentina responded with three goals from Cristian Romero, Messi and Enzo Fernandez to send the reigning champions through to the quarter-final.
Argentina will now go on to face either Switzerland or Colombia in the quarter-final.
Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.