Sport

Euro 2020: Fans think Italian striker Immobile faked injury and they are not impressed

<p>Immobile fell to the ground then swiftly stood up when his teammate scored</p>

Immobile fell to the ground then swiftly stood up when his teammate scored

BBC

Football fans think Italian striker Ciro Immobile faked an injury during a game and they are seething.

In their quarter-final match against Belgium yesterday, Immobile fell to the ground after coming into contact with Jan Vertonghen.

Instead of stopping the game, the referee did not act and Immobile’ teammate Nicolo Barella quickly scored a goal, causing Immobile to get up and join his teammates celebrating.

This has led fans to be suspicious about whether the footballer was actually injured, or was just trying to get awarded a cheeky penalty and people weren’t happy:

Alan Shearer said “I don’t even want to laugh at that because that’s pathetic. You can see him having a little look at the referee before he even goes down.

“It’s pathetically embarrassing.”

Others thought Immobile potentially crying wolf was dangerous in light of Christian Eriksen’s life threatening collapse during a game earlier this month. Fans expressed concern that faking injuries could lead referees not to take real issues seriously:

But others thought it was simply part of the game, and no big deal:

Italy beat Belgium and the final score was 2.1. They will soon face Spain in a semi-final match.

Let’s just hope Immobile recovers in time for it...

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