Jamie Carragher has poked fun at his Sky Sports colleague Gary Neville after he talked up Manchester City's chances of beating Real Madrid in their bumper Champions League semi-final clash.
The two teams faced off in the semi-finals of last year's tournament, with Real ultimately prevailing as they beat City 6-5 in a thrilling two-legged tie before going on to lift the trophy. However, Neville backed City to get revenge this time around, tipping them to face AC Milan in the final.
In a series of tweets, the Manchester United legend wrote: "CL next . City v Madrid the big game but also a Milan derby ! Difficult to predict . Fancy AC to nick it and make the final v City .
"A tough one for Madrid tonight ! Haaland and City in this form will take some stopping Fancy Grealish to step up tonight . Grown into his own the last few months and has started turning up in big games. Haaland to score !"
However, Carragher was quick to poke fun at Neville's prediction, claiming he was simply hedging his bets. Carragher tweeted: "If he's proven right 'I told you so' If not he's happy as it could stop City doing the treble. Oldest trick in the book!"
Much has been made of City's chances of winning the treble this season, a feat Neville managed with United in the 1998-99 campaign as they lifted the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup. And with City still in with a chance of replicating United's historic feat, Neville's former teammate and fellow treble winner Nicky Butt has admitted he would be "gutted" if they matched it.
"They are an amazing football team," Butt told ESPN. "Whoever wins the Treble, I'll be a bit gutted about it, but if they're doing it in the right way, playing the right way, then fair play to them.
"The project that they've had over the last 15 years, from when they took over, they have changed all the fundamentals in the local area. The owners are putting money into the local community, building houses. I'm the biggest Red you'll ever meet, but you can never say it's not an amazing project that they have put together.
"They brought in a manager that's certainly in the top three ever in my opinion, and they're playing unbelievable football. They're probably going to win the title, they're into the FA Cup final against United and they're looking good in the Champions League, so you'd have to say they've got a real chance of winning all three.
"The way they play football and what they do, you can't not say they're good. They're very, very good. What they did against Bayern Munich in the Champions League was frightening really."
