Gary Neville Doubles Down After Martinez and Romero Call Him Out. He’s Not Backing Down.

The World Cup semifinal between Argentina and England is barely in the rearview mirror and the trash talk is already going into extra time. Gary Neville, the former Manchester United captain turned pundit, isn’t walking back a single word he said about Argentina’s central defenders. If anything, he’s leaning in harder.

It started before the match. Neville was breaking down Argentina’s run to the semifinal on Sky Sports and pointed a finger at Lisandro Martinez and Cristian Romero. He called them “the best, worst centre-half pairing in the world.” His reasoning? They give up chances, they make wild decisions, but they also pop up with huge goals and headers at the other end. In his words, it’s “sublime to the ridiculous” from one moment to the next.

Argentina won again, of course. Another last-gasp win, this time over England. And after the final whistle, both defenders fired back. Martinez said he’s “used to” pundits like Neville always talking about them. Romero, never one for a measured take, called Neville “stupid” and said he hopes he doesn’t end up the same way when he retires.

Neville didn’t flinch

When asked about it on Sky Sports the next day, Neville didn’t apologize. He didn’t soften his stance. He pointed to the numbers instead. Argentina gave up two goals to Egypt, two to Cape Verde, one to Switzerland, one to England. That’s six goals conceded in the knockout stage alone. Then he dropped the Messi card.

“If they didn’t have Lionel Messi up front… those two should go and hug him every single minute of every single day because he’s had to pull them out of the mire,” Neville said. He also brought up Romero’s season at Tottenham, where the club nearly got relegated and gave up 65 goals. “So I think I know what I’m talking about when I watch a player.”

He didn’t call them bad players. He called them contradictions. Force of nature defenders who can win every header in the attacking box but also have a mistake in them at the worst possible time.

Argentina is now one win away from becoming the first country in 64 years to defend a World Cup title. They face Spain in the final on Sunday in New York. If Martinez and Romero play clean and lift the trophy, Neville’s going to have a lot of people reminding him about this. If they give up a goal or two and Spain walks away with it, he’ll probably get a few more phone calls from Romero.

Either way, the subplot is alive and running straight through Sunday.