French star angers fans with Neymar-like 'disrespectful' acts
Furious football fans have put Kylian Mbappe in the same class as PSG teammate Neymar after the French star wasted time late in his nation’s World Cup semi-final win over Belgium.
Mbappe, 19, stole the headlines with a wonderful piece of skill to tee up Olivier Giroud but some fans didn’t forget what went down injury time.
Leading 1-0 and trying to avoid letting the Belgians in, France did all they could to get the ball away from their goal.
Corners and marauding runs down the touchline helped – as did Mbappe wiping 30 seconds off the clock with an act that saw him receive a yellow card.
With Belgium due a throw-in, the teenager ‘fumbled’ the ball and dribbled it into the box only to be pushed to the ground by Vincent Kompany and cautioned by the referee.
He also went down easily after a clash soon after receiving a yellow card, clutching at his head despite what appeared to be little more than a bump.
Fans weren’t happy with either incident, and suggested Mbappe had learned a little too much from Neymar in their year together in Paris:
He pulled the good ol' Neymar
— Thomas Merlin (@T3O_o) July 10, 2018
He’s a snide same as Neymar.
— Alan (@AlanAlanh07) July 10, 2018
One more salty tweet. Mbappe needs to get far away from Neymar and stop these negative antics (time wasting, diving, rolling around on the ground after every touch) Never felt this much hate for such an amazing talent and that's just not right.
— Koekje 🇧🇪👹 (@koekje987) July 10, 2018
Imagine it was Neymar who was time-wasting like Mbappe there? Twitter would be going wild.
— Iain (@CemetryGates89) July 10, 2018
Mbappe does a Neymar.. wasting time.. #FRABEL
— Tottology | Toshal (@Tottology) July 10, 2018
I’ve lost all respect for mbappe and all of the French players the end was just sad to watch it wasn’t just a time wasting it was plain disrespect
— Sub2McDolphin (@McDolphin89) July 10, 2018
Mbappe learning gamesmanship from neymar
— Yaga. (@Worrido_SK) July 10, 2018
Mbappe did have his defenders, however.
After all, every player from every team – even yours – would have done the same thing if it meant reaching the World Cup final.
For those saying France didn’t deserve the win for Mbappe wasting time at the end, it’s less than 10 seconds, Belgium had 96 minutes and 50 seconds to score and didn’t #FRA #FRABEL
— Carter Paré (@CarterPare) July 10, 2018
Are there people who are actually mad at Mbappe for time wasting? Who are these people and what game have they been watching for their entire lives, obviously not football. @PSGIsLife #WorldCup #FRABEL #FRA #BEL
— Marc Damon (@MarcDamon1) July 10, 2018
everyone is loud about mbappe wasting time by kicking the ball away as if wasting time in football in the last minutes isnt a normal thing lol
— . (@ikoncert) July 10, 2018
And now France will face England or Croatia in the final after Samuel Umtiti’s goal led the 1998 champions to the World Cup final for the third time in 20 years.
The defender headed home a corner from Antoine Griezmann in the 51st minute to settle the all-European tie, booking Les Bleus a trip to Moscow.
with agencies