"Lot better than your punditry team" - Jamie Carragher forces BT Sport to delete mocking Liverpool tweet
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has forced BT Sport to delete a tweet that appeared to mock the last Reds team that visited Benfica in 2010.
Ahead of Liverpool's Champions League quarter-final first-leg victory against Benfica last night, the broadcaster's Twitter feed posted a picture of the starting XI that faced the Portuguese giants in a Europa League game while Rafa Benitez was in charge.
The side had the likes of Carragher himself, Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina, but the now Sky Sports pundit clearly took exception to the tweet, particularly with the use of a laughing emoji.
Reds' fans argued that the team was much better than BT Sport Football had clearly implied, and Carragher was quick to send a savage reply.
The 44-year-old former defender simply said:
"That team is a lot better than your punditry team."
Carragher's jab appeared to be aimed at former Reds strikers Peter Crouch and Michael Owen, who were on punditry duty for last night's game.
BT Sport Football later deleted the tweet following the backlash.
The Liverpool team shown in the photo lost that game at the Estadio da Luz, where despite taking the lead through a Daniel Agger header, Benitez's side lost 2-1. But they progressed to the Europa League semi-final thanks to a 4-1 win at Anfield a week later.
We take a two-goal lead back to Anfield ✊
#SLBLIV | #UCL https://t.co/yjS3FNIkXV
Carragher looks forward to Sunday's title decider between Liverpool and Manchester City
Carragher is considered one of the Reds' greatest-ever defenders, having made 737 appearances for the Merseyside club while winning nine trophies, including the 2005 Champions League.
Following his former club's impressive 3-1 victory at Benfica last night, Carragher gave a frank assessment of the team's performance, tweeting:
🏻#BENLIV3-1 win away in the @ChampionsLeague quarter finals @LFC great 1st half but not at their best in the 2nd half, but that just shows how good they are & the standards we set them!
Roll on Sunday 👊🏻#BENLIV
Liverpool raced into a 2-0 lead in the first half thanks to goals from Ibrahima Konate and Sadio Mane.
The second half was much tougher for Jurgen Klopp's men, conceding early to Darwin Nunez. But Luis Diaz completed the victory late on ahead of next week's second leg at Anfield.
Attention now turns to Sunday's potential Premier League title decider away at Manchester City, with just one point separating the top two. Both sides have just eight games left to play in the league.
The Reds are on an incredible run of ten Premier League victories in a row and have closed the gap on Pep Guardiola's team, having been 12 points behind City as recently as February.
8 - @LFC have won eight consecutive away matches in all competitions for the first time in their history. Powerhouse. https://t.co/XNIQ1Xh3fe