Barcelona star Raphinha has provided an insight into his side of things, after being involved in a heated post-match altercation on the back of last night’s meeting with Benfica.
Barcelona are of course fresh off an evening to remember on the continent on Tuesday.
After making the trip to Lisbon for a Champions League showdown with Benfica, the Blaugrana found themselves trailing by four goals to two inside the closing 15 minutes.
After Robert Lewandowski pulled one back from the penalty spot, though, Eric García levelled things up from close range, setting the stage for Raphinha to break free in behind to notch the game’s decisive 9th goal deep into injury-time.
The drama at the Estádio da Luz, however, did not come to a close upon the full-time whistle sounding.
As confirmed by a number of sources in Portugal, the two sets of players were involved in a fiery exchange in the tunnel post-match.
So heated did things become, that the police presence in attendance at the clash were forced to intervene.
Speaking to the media upon things finally settling down, the subject of the tunnel fracas was in turn put to Man of the Match Raphinha.
And the Brazilian went on to confirm reports that he was a central protagonist, after being repeatedly insulted by Benfica’s players:
“They insulted me at the end of the match, I insulted them back. If they respect me, I respect them. In my opinion, they could have understood the situation, but they preferred to insult me.”
Conor Laird – GSFN
