Paris Saint-Germain star Neymar says he regrets not hitting ‘a*****e’ Marseille defender Alvaro Gonzalez in the face after the Brazilian claims he was racially abused by the Spaniard.
Neymar was one of five players to see red in the final minute in Paris as a brawl broke out between the two sides.
PSG midfielder Leandro Paredes was sent off for hitting out at Darío Benedetto, which sparked a scuffle between the two teams. After facing up to one another, full-back Layvin Kurzawa saw red after repeatedly hitting Jordan Amavi, who was also given his marching orders for kicking the Frenchman.
Neymar sarcastically applauded the referee as he left the field and he was heard telling the assistant referee that he was racially abused on the touchline. The Brazilian claimed that he was on the receiving end of a racist comment and ‘that’s why I did it’, while he shouted: ‘I hit [Alvaro] because he is a racist’ down the camera.
Neymar posted a series of tweets after the match in which he went into more detail and he subsequently claimed that Gonzalez called him a ‘monkey motherf****r’ during the match.
‘VAR catching my “aggression” is easy,’ said Neymar. ‘Now I want to see the image of the racist calling me “MONO HIJO DE PUTA” (monkey motherfucker) … that I want to see! What’s up? ‘I do a rainbow flick you punish me .. For a little slap I am expelled … what about them? What’s up ?’
When Neymar mentions a ‘rainbow flick’, he’s referring to an incident in 2017 when he was yellow carded after performing the skill in a game against Montpellier.
Following the VAR review, Neymar was sent off after replays showed that he hit Gonzalez in the back of the head. But in an earlier tweet, the former Real Madrid star said he regretted not hitting the ‘a*****e’ in the face for his comments. ‘My only regret is not hitting that a*****e in the face,’ tweeted Neymar.
Neymar and Gonzalez squared up to one another just one minute before the brawl erupted in the final seconds of the game in Paris and he was clearly upset with the defender, though it was not clear at the time to viewers exactly why.
After he was sent off, Neymar was seen telling the fourth official that he had been racially abused and he shouted down the camera as much during his walk down the touchline.
There is likely to be a wide investigation into the incident with Neymar facing a minimum three-match ban for violent conduct. Paris Saint-Germain’s defeat means Thomas Tuchel’s side are within a single point in their opening two matches, leaving the champions in the relegation zone.
The rivalry between PSG and Marseille is a long one and the wearing of PSG shirts in the southern city was banned on the day of the Champions League final clash between PSG and Bayern Munich in August.
