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Australia fans react to reaching World Cup last 16
Manchester United icon and ITV pundit Gary Neville responded to England defender Conor Coady's joke at his expense during the broadcaster's coverage of Spain's final group stage clash against Japan. The Three Lions squad were shown iconic England World Cup goals ahead of their round-of-16 tie with Senegal on Sunday when Coady's comments reminded the interviewer of Neville.
As Coady was shown Geoff Hurst's hat-trick goal in the 1966 final, he critiqued the defending for the extra-time strike. When the interviewer suggested that he sounded like Neville for his comments, the Everton ace replied: "Don't say that."
Neville was shown the clip in the Qatar studio, where he suggested that Coady has a future in punditry. "He’ll definitely be a pundit if he’s looking at it from a defenders point of view," Nevile said as he took the joke well.
The ex-United defender has long been a fan of Coady, as the centre-back has often joined him and Sky Sports colleague Jamie Carragher during their Monday Night Football show for interviews where the Merseyside man has been praised in the past.
Gary Neville took Conor Coady's jibe well live on ITV. (Image: ITV)
As attention then turned to Group E where Germany and Spain are vying to qualify for the knock-out stages, Neville admitted he "loved" Leroy Sane during his time at Manchester City. "I thought Sane had a bit of an ordeal at City," Neville added.
"Pep [Guardiola], for some reason never got on with him or fancied him - I loved him. From a right-back perspective, how he would attack players, pace, directness and he caused Spain enough problems in the last 20 to keep his place."
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Earlier on Thursday, Belgium were eliminated at the group stage following their 0-0 draw with Croatia while Morocco defeated Canada 2-1.
Head coach Roberto Martinez announced his departure at full-time, and Neville admitted that he did the right thing in resigning. "There will be mass disappointment," Neville claimed. "They’ve wasted their opportunity and they’ve gone through their careers not winning a trophy together.
"Roberto Martinez at the end looked lost, they looked sick of each other’s company, the interviews out of camp were negative. Roberto’s done the right thing because you don’t want that window of game and two or three days where speculation in the press, like Roy [Hodgson] in 2016, you have to take the stories away and get control of it yourself."
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