Guardado: "Neymar likes to exaggerate fouls, he throws himself on the floor a lot"
"We all know Neymar but it isn't up to me or my teammates to judge him but the referees and FIFA" added Andres Guardado
Mexican player Andrés Guardado says that his team's victory over Germany at the World Cup means that anything could happen against their Last 16 opponents, Brazil. He also had some harsh words for their star player, Neymar.
"We all know who Neymar is but it isn't up to me, or my team, to judge him but the referees and FIFA. Now there's VAR they need to watch his style and know how to manage it. We know he likes to exaggerate fouls, throw himself on the ground a lot, but that's his style of play and the person who needs to stop that is the referee, not us," added the Real Betis midfielder.
Guardado said that while Mexico have never beaten Brazil at the World Cup, "the statistics don't play", as was shown in Mexico's first match at the tournament against Germany. The player, who is 31, said his team didn't need any motivation ahead of facing Brazil. "What greater motivation could you need when we face off against the 5-time champions in the game of our lives? It's the perfect scene."
"There's no greater memory than making history with a fifth match. We're different players in terms of the mental aspect but we know we'll be judged by whether we get through or not."
"We weren't full of confidence after the match against Germany. One day we're the best, the next we're the worst. It is what it is and we're used to these types of situations. We can't change the mentality of how they are going to judge us. We got out of the most difficult group at the World Cup and no one has praised us. Our first objective is complete. We aren't happy with the defeat, we had our hands on first place," stated Guardado.
"The match against Sweden was a good lesson for us in order to learn how to play against that style of football. The European style, long direct balls to the strikers, we've suffered a lot against these types of rivals. We haven't known how to counteract those teams and the lesson we've learned is to change our style of play if we come up against another one. We can't give them so much space on the counterattack."
For now at least Guardado admits they'll face a rival who plays "similar" football to his. "It's the biggest game of our lives."
