Argentina players mock Pickford’s penalty remarks following their win over England

Jordan Pickford, the England national football team’s goalkeeper, was prepared for anything in the semi-final match, but he probably did not expect important information to reach the hands of his Argentine rivals and to spread widely.

As other goalkeepers had done in the past, Pickford placed a piece of paper on his water bottle, which included printed notes about the way Argentine players take penalty kicks if they resort to them, which did not happen, as the Argentine team came from behind and won 2/1 in stoppage time, and its players found the bottle after the final whistle.

Lionel Messi and his teammates laughed as they examined the notes on the bottle, before the players passed the bottle between them. Luis Martin, the fitness coach for the Argentine national team, posted a picture of the incident on his Instagram account, and wrote: “What a loss that we did not have the same plan.”

Martin later deleted the post, but the photos and video had already spread widely and became the talk of social media.