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Sport
Kate Plummer
Jul 03, 2021
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:
Immobile rolling around on the floor looking for the penalty. Barela scores and he miraculously gets up and starts celebrating— JaiP (@JaiP) 1625254416
@mrdanwalker Embarrassing and makes the game a farce, they talk about getting the younger generation back into foot… https://t.co/zQeFZ9LfFU— Gareth Bayliss (@Gareth Bayliss) 1625290802
“I’m feeling a bit better, actually” https://t.co/6hMSvFd089— Stig Abell (@Stig Abell) 1625256363
@donmoyn this should be an automatic red card— Jason Shiplett (@Jason Shiplett) 1625254741
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.”
"I don't even want to laugh at that because that's pathetic!" Alan Shearer was not impressed by Ciro Immobile's th… https://t.co/iFsVETKsgy— Match of the Day (@Match of the Day) 1625260702
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:
Players need to be taught that behaving this way takes away from the real and quite possibly deadly scenarios of pl… https://t.co/irb3zTGMQE— Ryan 🌹 (@Ryan 🌹) 1625295877
Makes a mockery of Christian Eriksen’s on field near death experience. This is but 1 example of hundreds throughout… https://t.co/BPjeMlNt8d— Farr Fox Hake 🏴 (@Farr Fox Hake 🏴) 1625294583
But others thought it was simply part of the game, and no big deal:
@donmoyn @MaxBoot Calm down everyone. This is part of the game of soccer.— Pedram Hoss (@Pedram Hoss) 1625256252
@jshiplett @donmoyn Thats part of the game why u think best players do that?— Damian (@Damian) 1625260108
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...