Gary Neville has slammed Wayne Hennessey for the rash challenge which saw the Nottingham Forest goalkeeper sent off in Wales' World Cup clash with Iran.
The 35-year-old stopper was handed the number one shirt for the Qatar tournament by Wales boss Rob Page and had started both their group games to date, against the USA and Iran.
Wales were able to claim a draw in their first game thanks to a late Gareth Bale penalty, but suffered a 2-0 defeat to Iran on Friday, largely down to the decision making of Hennessey.
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As the game entered the final five minutes of regular time, Iran played a lofted ball over the top of the Welsh defence to Porto striker Mehdi Taremi. Hennessey rushed out of his penalty area and attempted to clear the ball, but instead collided with the Iran forward and was dismissed following a VAR review.
In the aftermath of the match, TV pundit and former Premier League defender Neville criticised Hennessey and claimed he didn't need to make the challenge. He said: "I don’t think he needed to come out at all because [defender Neco] Williams was managing the run.
"I’ve never seen a back three get as pulled apart as Wales did against Iran. To be fair, Hennessey tried to come out like most goalkeepers as a sweeper keeper, but he’s got it badly wrong, he’s not good at it.
"He should’ve stayed back, let his defender deal with it and manage the shot from the line, it was a mess but they deserved to get beat today Wales, Iran were better."
