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Topics: Rio Ferdinand, Juan Mata, England, Spain, Gareth Southgate
Rio Ferdinand issued a sarcastic retort to a fan who mocked him with a savage Juan Mata comment.
Gary Lineker, Micah Richards and Ferdinand were joined by former Chelsea and Manchester United midfielder Mata to cover the European Championship final, which Spain won 2-1 in Munich.
Mata, who was part of the Spain squad that last won the Euros in 2012, scoring in the final, was widely praised for his balanced punditry during Sunday’s encounter.
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And in praising Mata, one person on X simultaneously took the opportunity to have a pop at Ferdinand.
Andy McCarroll wrote: “Juan Mata with a page full of notes in front of him. Rio Ferdinand with ‘vibes’ written on his.”
Ferdinand, however, sarcastically responded with a blunt ‘thumbs up’ emoji.
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Elsewhere, after the game Ferdinand slammed Gareth Southgate’s tactics after the 2-1 defeat to Spain.
“We said after the group stages, if you’re going to play the conservative side of things with the amount of talent we have in this squad, you have to win,” the ex-centre-back told the BBC.
“Otherwise it will come down to it being absolutely dissected and looked at as being a negative approach.
“That falls on the manager’s toes. He sets this team out in a particular way to play... That’s his style of football and you have to win playing like that because these players are too good.
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“They play too well for their clubs to come here and look a shadow of themselves. We were a team when the game was in the balance — but we were held back on a leash and that’s the disappointing thing with the quality of players we have in this squad.”
He added: “The top teams get control and are aggressive from minute one and take games off opponents.
“Every fan watching would have thought, ‘Why have we waited to go a goal down to let the shackles off and start going at them?’.
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“It wasn’t until Ollie Watkins came on and he started hurrying them. We have waited so long? Why should we wait for so long to be on the front foot when we’ve got quality players all over the park?”