Emmanuel Petit gave Gary Neville a run for his money as he lit up the talkSPORT airwaves during France’s draw with Netherlands.
The Arsenal and Les Bleus legend is part of the talkSPORT commentary team over in Germany for Euro 2024, and added a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ to our coverage of Friday night’s huge clash – which was even noticed by TV pundit Jermaine Jenas.
France vs Netherlands gave us the first goalless draw of Euro 2024, but in the words of Petit: “It was a good 0-0.”
It certainly was for the neutral, with both sides showing plenty of industry to get forward, with a handful of mistakes at the back and a disallowed Dutch goal that should probably have stood to give them the win.
But for French and Dutch fans, it was 90 minutes of frustration and agony.
And that’s exactly what you would have heard unfolding live on air if you were tuning into talkSPORT for commentary from World Cup and European Championship winner Petit.
The ex-winger was in full-on meltdown mode from the beginning of the game, with Neville-esque moans and groans heard every time a France player shot… and missed.
But the best moment came during the first-half when Adrien Rabiot and Antoine Griezmann collaborated to perform one of the biggest goal blunders of the tournament so far.
Rabiot, playing out of position on the wing in place of the injured Kylian Mbappe, went clear through of the Dutch defence, but instead of slotting it past the goalkeeper one-on-one, he squared the ball to Griezmann in the box.
To be fair, Griezmann was free, but he clearly didn’t expect the ball to come to him, as he lunged and scuffed his shot as the biggest chance of the game went begging.
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Petit couldn’t believe it: “Yes… YES… NOOOOOOOO!”
It was reminiscent of Neville’s famous, ‘Ooohhhhhhhh’, as Fernando Torres scored against Barcelona to send Chelsea to the 2012 Champions League final.
A stunned Petit went on: “I can’t believe it, how did we miss that?! Rabiot could score, he was very generous with Griezmann, he gave the ball to him.
“But he could have scorrreeeddd! Easily! Score! You are so close to the goalkeeper…. TRY!”
Later on in the broadcast, he said: “If I was Rabiot in that situation, I would score straight away.
“Just score! Why are you passing to Griezmann? Just score! It’s simple!”
After another mistake from his countrymen later in the game, the Frenchman added in despair: “This is hurting my eyes!”
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And even the BBC noticed, with former Tottenham and England midfielder Jenas admitting live on TV that he could hear Petit going mental from behind their seats in the gantry.
After yet another gilt-edged change went begging for Didier Deschamps’ men, Jenas said: “Manu Petit is going crazy behind me.”
Petit – goalscorer in the 1998 World Cup final and part of the Euro 2000 winning France squad – really was kicking every ball from the commentary gantry, and it make for radio gold.
“I love all football,” he told talkSPORT commentator Joe Shennan. “But I’m so passionate about the national team!”
You can say that again, Manu!
