Frustration in the Champions League
Neymar freaks out against Uzbek runners-up
September 19, 2023, 10:12 a.m
Neymar has been an Al-Hilal player for a few days. The Brazilian superstar celebrated his league debut last Friday and is now playing in the Champions League again. And there he immediately becomes behaviorally suspicious. But not in the way football lovers would hope.
Once the glamorous sporting reality of Neymar Jr. was called FC Barcelona or Paris Saint-Germain, the global superstar played in the biggest competitions in sold-out arenas against the biggest teams in the football world. But the Brazilian’s new reality is called Navbahor Namangan. And in terms of sport, the noble offensive player, who moved from Paris Saint-Germain to Al-Hilal in the Saudi league for 90 million euros for the new season, has apparently not yet fully settled into his new life. Neymar made his debut in the Asian Champions League against Navbahor Namangan, the runner-up of Uzbekistan – and had a freak out in front of the largely empty stands in the huge King Fahd Stadium in the capital Riyadh.
Neymar, who only made his league debut for his new club last Friday, was fouled in the 60th minute, and with the subsequent free kick near the halfway line, a situation arose that ended very lightly for the Brazilian: first he pushed his opponent Abros Ismailov, who first stumbled and then fell to the ground, then Neymar shot the Uzbek national player, obviously with full intention and more than half his strength. Neymar only saw a yellow card for the action. Ismailov had previously been cautioned for his foul play.
In addition to the anger over the foul, Neymar’s frustration could also have come from the score: Al-Hilal had been 0-1 behind since the 52nd minute thanks to a goal from Toma Tabatadze. Al-Hilal, who, in addition to Neymar, have new signings like Malcolm (60 million euros), Ruben Neves (55 million euros) and Aleksandar Mitrovic (52 million euros) worth around 250 million euros, still came in the tenth minute of stoppage time to equalize by Saudi central defender Ali Al-Boleahi.