Neville makes absurd, unsubstantiated claim about England draw with Ghana – ‘I’m going to get heavily criticised’ | OneFootball

Gary Neville knows he’s “going to get heavily criticised” for his comparison between England’s performance in their draw with Ghana and the victory over Croatia.

The Three Lions got off to a great start with a 4-2 win over Croatia, but followed it up with a nostalgic tribute to previous major tournaments with a bore 0-0 draw with Ghana in Boston on Tuesday.

Harry Kane missed a sitter and Nico O’Reilly hit the bar late on, but Ghana could easily have come away with three points as Ezri Konsa was fortunate not to concede a penalty, while Jordan Pickford could easily have been sent off.

Reflecting on Kane’s miss and the team’s display in general, Tuchel told BBC Sport: “Normally, a clear goal for us. It’s a big chance and then another chance. It would’ve been deserved.

“We knew it would be difficult. They went even more defensive than in the first match; they defended in a 4-5-1. We found our intensity the longer the half went but we couldn’t get the reward.

“We were very good at defending the counter-attacks for most of the match. We have to pay a huge amount of attention to that. Subs were very good.”

A positive but perfectly reasonable take from the England manager, who we suspect was rather more impressed by the opening game; particularly the second half which sent us giddy.

‘A better performance’

But Neville – for reasons he didn’t explain – believes the Three Lions put in a “better performance” against Ghana than they did against Croatia.

He said on The Overlap: “[On England’s performance against Ghana] I enjoyed the game.

“I’m going to get heavily criticised for this, but there’s part of me that thinks that was a better performance than the game against Croatia.”

Neville did admit that it was a struggle at times due to the physicality of the Ghana team.

He added: “It will be interesting to see how that game is received at home.

“I played in those games quite a few times for England, where you are knocking on the door, and they are sitting so deep.

“That was an interesting game, that was a struggle of a game, in terms of just generally trying to score, physical.”