Skip to content

Alves explains his side of free-kick controversy: 'Neymar took the ball'

Gonzalo Fuentes / Reuters

The rivalry between Brazil and Uruguay isn't confined to South America.

Paris Saint-Germain's 2-0 victory over Olympique Lyonnais was contaminated by an incident in which Dani Alves hid the ball from teammate Edinson Cavani before allowing a compatriot and friend in Neymar to take a free-kick instead. It was a bad look for PSG, advertising the egos at the club to supporters everywhere.

In conversation with SportTV, Alves gave his version of the events, saying he actually wanted to take the free-kick himself but that Neymar took the ball away from him.

"I was going to hit it," Alves said, according to Marca. "I took the ball to take the free-kick, because I have scored goals from there in the past and I was confident I could score another one. But I think that's the least important thing. The most important is for the team to win, which is above any individual result."

Alves also declared: "When you feel the game is not going well you must take that responsibility and I wanted to do it. But afterwards Neymar took the ball and ended up taking the kick and unfortunately I could not."

The free-kick wasn't the only time that Cavani and Neymar fought for control in the second half. After PSG was awarded a penalty kick, the Uruguayan striker and the Brazilian phenom were at odds over who should take it, with the former ultimately getting the latter to walk away before rocketing a shot that Anthony Lopes deflected off the crossbar.

Manager Unai Emery spoke about the incidents after the final whistle, stating, per ESPN FC's Jonathan Johnson: "I have told them to sort it out between themselves. I think that they are capable of doing that and that they will both be our kickers. If they cannot reach an agreement, I will decide for them. I do not want this to become a problem for us."

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox