Argentina’s Cristian Romero says he hopes he is not as “stupid” as Gary Neville when he retires, after the former England and Manchester United defender criticised him ahead of Wednesday’s World Cup semi-final

In the build-up to Argentina’s 2-1 win over England, Neville said Argentina’s Romero and Lisandro Martinez were “the best, worst centre-half pairing in the world”.

The duo have played regularly together at international level for several years, including starting in the 2024 Copa America final victory over Colombia, and have started all but one of their side’s World Cup matches this summer — the exception being the final group-stage game against Jordan when Argentina had already qualified.

“The only thing that I hope for is that when I retire, I am not that stupid. Hopefully I won’t criticise a player or anyone,” Romero replied when asked about Neville’s remark by DSports after the win over England.

“Because at the end of the day, we are doing our best for our national team. Sometimes it goes right for us, sometimes badly, but we are just happy to be in a World Cup final again.

“I think we are making history, for us it is something really huge, and we feel the significance of this shirt like no one else.”

Martinez added: “We’re used to people always talking about us. It seems like they like doing it, and we respond on the pitch, that’s it, always with respect.”

Martinez and Romero have been a regular centre-back pairing for Argentina (Juan Mabromata / AFP via Getty Images)

Romero of Tottenham Hotspur and Martinez of Manchester United have played in the Premier League, which Neville covers as a commentator and pundit for Sky Sports, for five and four years respectively.

“They seem to give a goal away between them every single game,” Neville said about the pair on The Overlap earlier this week.

“But you watch them (for Argentina), they are scoring goals, heading the ball, they’re literally everywhere — it’s incredible.

“I call them the best, worst centre-half pairing in the world. Because they absolutely at times they can be unbelievable but the next, it’s the sublime to the ridiculous.”

The Romero-Martinez partnership has kept two clean sheets in six World Cup games (against Algeria and Austria), conceding six goals (against Cape Verde, Egypt, Switzerland and England).

Argentina’s win in Atlanta sees them through to the final, where they will face Spain at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.

England have showed character at this World Cup, coming from behind to defeat both DR Congo at the last-32 stage and Norway in the quarter-finals.

“The difference is hanging on against Norway or Mexico [in the last 16], they have not got the quality this Argentina team have got in terms of the ability on the ball and the ability they have to punish you,” former England captain Alan Shearer told BBC Sport.

“Tuchel played his cards very, very early and it has backfired.”

England looked to have taken full control of the semi-final against their old foes when Gordon put them ahead 10 minutes into the second half.

England’s fans celebrated wildly – but then the Three Lions opted to sit back and defend.

“The fact that England got themselves in front and then basically handed Argentina the initiative… that was a coaching catastrophe from Thomas Tuchel,” Chris Sutton, a Premier League winner with Blackburn in 1994-95, told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“You can’t expect to defend for 30 minutes against the quality Argentina had.

“It’s all on the coach where I am concerned. He made the changes. He was negative, so the question which I’m going to ask is ‘how can you trust Thomas Tuchel to take this team forward?'”

England have come undone against Argentina in the past.

Who can forget Diego Maradona’s infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal at the 1986 World Cup or the 1998 World Cup defeat that burns so deep.

England, however, have no-one but themselves to blame for Wednesday’s loss.

“Norway and Mexico panicked against England,” former England goalkeeper Joe Hart told BBC Sport.

“I didn’t see one bit of panic from that Argentina side. I saw belief, I saw the realising they could free up the great man Lionel Messi in the pocket, and they were running all over England.

“Gareth Southgate took a lot of criticism for the big moments with England, when they had the lead in big games and shut up shop. I don’t see that anything has changed in that big moment out there.”

So what were the changes that frustrated England fans so much?

Leading 1-0, many expected Tuchel to go for another goal – but instead the German made three defensive changes.

He brought Konsa on for Gordon in the 72nd minute – switching to a back five – before bringing on further defensive reinforcements 10 minutes later in Burn and O’Reilly.

Tuchel sent on forward Rashford and Toney in added time, but it proved too little too late.

“I felt the changes we made at 1-0, that if Argentina scored we wouldn’t make extra time,” added Rooney.

Former England defender Micah Richards told BBC Sport: “When England scored that first goal they should have gone for the second.

“Yes, you respect their quality, but dropping deep allowed Argentina to get into their flow.”

Former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, said Tuchel went too deep too soon,

“I think he has got that wrong,” added Robinson, who won 41 caps for England between 2003 and2007.

“He has got a lot of decisions right, but I think trying to defend a lead against this team was a wrong choice.”