Neville responds to critics after being made to feel like a ‘fool’ over Spain prediction | OneFootball

Gary Neville says he felt like “a fool” over his pre-tournament prediction about Spain before being proved right on Tuesday.

Spain crashed out of the World Cup in the first match of the day on Tuesday with Morocco claiming another huge scalp after beating Belgium in the group stage.

Morocco defended brilliantly for 120 minutes before beating Spain 3-0 on penalties to advance to the quarter-finals against Portugal on Saturday.

Madrid-born Achraf Hakimi hit the winning penalty, showing no fear with a panenka, after Sevilla goalkeeper Bono had saved from both Carlos Soler and Sergio Busquets, with Spain failing to convert any of their three penalties after Pablo Sarabia hit the post with the first.

Spain were left to rue a Sarabia shot which struck the outside of the post in the third of three minutes added on to the goalless 120 at the Education City Stadium – but Walid Regragui’s Morocco side were worthy winners.

Before the tournament, Neville predicted that Spain would struggle to score goals with their lack of prolific strikers in their squad.

“They’re a little bit in transition,” Neville told ITV Sport. “Still struggling to produce forwards… I worry about them up front. It’s OK but there is no goals in it.”

But Neville was ridiculed after Spain put seven goals past Costa Rica in their World Cup opener with the former Manchester United defender adding: “I think we [himself and journalist Guillem Balague] will be proved right!”

Spain only took another point in the group stages with Luis Enrique’s side moving into the knockout rounds courtesy of a better goal difference than Germany.

In the end Neville was right about the 2010 World Cup winners with Spain lacking a “ruthless” streak needed to win the tournament.

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Neville said after they were knocked out of the tournament: “I felt a bit of a fool [after they beat Costa Rica] to be honest with you!

“I felt that strongly before the tournament started [Spain would struggle], then they went and scored seven against Costa Rica, and you think, ‘Wow, what is going on’.

“But in the end they haven’t got enough up front. They’re not ruthless and not clinical enough.”

Neville later retweeted a tweet from an account on Twitter, it read: “Gary Neville said before the Costa Rica game that this Spain side would struggle to go really far in the World Cup because of their lack of goals.