Patrice Evra got the audience laughing at last night’s Soccer Aid, with Rio Ferdinand poking fun at his former teammate, too.
The charity match played in front of a packed London Stadium, as celebrities and football legends battled it out. Joining Patrice Evra in the Soccer Aid World XI were former pros Cafu, Dimitar Berbatov, and Carli Lloyd.
Also on the World XI side were Line of Duty’s Martin Compston, Mo Gilligan, and Usain Bolt, among others.
Similarly, the England team had a host of famous faces. Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher paired up in defence, with the likes of Mark Noble and Eni Aluko adding quality in midfield and attack. Celebs such as Russell Howard, Tom Grennan, Chunkz, and Mark Wright all took part too.
In an entertaining game, the World XI won the event for the fourth year running. They claimed victory via penalty shootout following a 2-2 draw after ninety minutes. Impressively, celebrities scored all four goals in the match.
Clearly, the celebrities were up for the occasion and caused problems for some football legends. For instance, the pace of Usain Bolt (unsurprisingly) gave Jamie Carragher something to think about throughout his first-half cameo.
Similarly, Patrice Evra had a hilarious moment as he tried to stave off an England attack.
Patrice Evra: His Soccer Aid evening
The former Man United and Marseille man oozed the quality expected of a Champions League winner. Evra calmly swept up England attacks, and played a variety of passes with ease. He even made a goal-saving tackle to deny Tom Grennan a run one-on-one.
In addition, the Frenchman won a penalty that put the Rest of the World 1-0 up. Chunkz fouled Evra clumsily in the box, earning a spot-kick that TikTok star Noah Beck dispatched. However, it was not all plain sailing for Evra.
His former United teammate, Rio Ferdinand, noticed a humorous gaffe that Evra made in a goal-line scramble. Ferdinand re-tweeted a slow-mo replay of the action, captioning it “Patty” with a collection of laughing emojis.
In the clip, Evra slides to try and reach a bouncing ball in the box, but kicks air. Instead, Olympic champion Mo Farah gets there first, after which Evra completely wipes out the England team celeb.
Not only was the swipe at thin air hilarious, but Evra was also lucky to get away with not conceding a penalty. Somehow the referee and linesman managed to miss it!
Thankfully, the Frenchman did not have to fear the hairdryer treatment from Sir Alex Ferguson for the error, as he would have during his playing career. Instead, the gaffe became the source of banter for his friends and those on social media.
But it’s all part of the fun of Soccer Aid, isn’t it? In fact, the evening turned out to be a record-breaker. According to UK Fundraising, the event raised a record £15.6 million for UNICEF. In an amazing display of support, this beat last year’s record by over £2 million.
Featured Image Credit: Getty
