Emiliano Martinez may have had the last laugh in his battle with Kylian Mbappe, but plenty of fans are mocking the Argentine's celebrations.
The Aston Villa goalkeeper was a crucial member of his country's World Cup triumph. His heroics in the World Cup final shootout, where he denied Kingsley Coman and Aurélien Tchouaméni, came after he also excelled in the quarter-final win over the Netherlands.
Argentina's win was their first World Cup success in 1986. The team have since celebrated with the nation in an open top bus parade through the streets of Buenos Aires. Martinez was pictured with a baby doll that had Mbappe's face put onto it - which seen him mocked.
The Villa shotstopper has seemed to wage a war of words against the Frenchman, who scored a hat-trick in the final as well as a penalty in the shootout. Mbappe had stated that European outfits have an advantage over their South American rivals because the likes of Brazil and Argentina don't play against competitive opponents.
Martinez didn't take kindly to such comments as he responded: "He doesn't know enough about football. He never played in South America. When you don’t have this experience, it may be better not to talk about it. But it doesn't matter. We are a great team, recognised as such."
Fans though have been keen to remind the Argentine that Mbappe, the man he is mocking, did put the ball past him four times in the final. Martinez got a hand to the shootout spot kick, but was otherwise well beaten by the PSG star, who won the Golden Boot.
One fan said: "Emi Martinez is a proper weirdo!! Mbappe will come & punish him more. He already scored 4 past him that game. You’ve won the World Cup and you still have time for nonsense."
Another added: "This honestly makes me laugh, if you were to show this image to a causal football fan that didn’t watch the final, you’d think Emi Martínez had Kylian in his pocket all game. The truth is, Mbappé made this guy pick the ball out of the back of the net 4 times. Actual obsession."
Martinez was also urged to simply rejoice in the celebrations with his compatriot: "If I were Emi Martinez I'd simply just enjoy the winning bit instead of bringing Mbappe into it, for whatever reason."
The goalkeeper's antics in the penalty shootout have been cited as crucial in the win. Martinez engaged in serious mind games - talking to his opponents whilst he threw the ball away from Tchouaméni before he missed. For some though, including Ian Wright, he went too far.
He told the Ringer's FC podcast : "I was thinking this guy is going to go to another level of s***housery if this final goes to penalties. And he did. I like Emi but what he did in the penalty shootout crossed the line, in respect of sportsmanship. He crossed the line."
Martinez has since claimed he could've stopped Mbappe's penalty: "I did my thing that I dreamed of. It is in this moment that I have to give my teammates peace of mind. I could have stopped it (Mbappe’s penalty) too, I dived badly. But then I did everything right. I have no words for it. I was calm during the penalty shootout and everything went as we wanted."
