Who’s laughing now?
It was certainly galling for England fans to witness the Welsh squad celebrating Iceland’s 2-1 victory over Roy Hodgson’s men in the last 16 of the European Championships. The video footage was leaked and it didn’t go down very well at all.
That said, they are a local rival and therefore their preference for England’s foes is someway understandable. But a Metro piece, written in conjunction with Ladbrokes, is another matter entirely.
It particularly annoyed Welsh fans because the newspaper is meant to service the whole of the UK, and as such you’d assume they’d be on the side of all the home countries.
But not according to the column in question at least.
Not only did the piece mock Welsh football and expect them to be ‘demolished’ by Belgium, but it suggested Roy Hodgson and his English squad should cheer the result in revenge.
Scribed by JP Shaw, it reads as follows:
“Roy Hodgson’s last act as England coach should really be to film his squad cheering wildly directly after Belgium demolish Wales. It should be his last act, but I doubt he could even organise that.
“It’s astonishing to think Wales made the quarter-finals having been the only team England actually outclassed in the entire competition.
“Man-for-man, Belgium are in a different league to Wales (mostly the Premier League. Class will tell.”
Seeing as Wales achieved a glorious 3-1 victory to march onto the semi-final stage, many Welsh supporters were eager to ram the offending words back down from whence they came...
I guess JP Shaw from the @MetroUK was right.
Class will always tell in the end.#EURO2016 pic.twitter.com/pFyxXhxQ5t
— Jamie Phillips (@JNPhillips4) July 1, 2016
So JP Shaw can go a do one!! 🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼 pic.twitter.com/MoSzfyf7tC
— K a t • C z e k a j (@ItsmeKitty__) July 1, 2016
https://twitter.com/vocnorth/status/748991917438935044
https://twitter.com/madaboutewe/status/748502142072295424
https://twitter.com/RhodriD87/status/748984183003942912
