Neymar, bless him, has been in the wars again
After spending the vast majority of his time at the World Cup rolling around on the floor, and some time after the tournament considering whether he still had the strength to continue playing, the £537,000-a-week Brazilian has bravely fought on these past few months.
Despite insisting that he is a victim and is often in pain as a result of some of the hard tackles he finds himself on the end of, the rough treatment doesn’t appear to show any signs os slowing.
Though he scored the winner for Brazil from the penalty over Uruguay on Friday night, he was again sent sprawling by a couple of notable challenges: one from Paris Saint-Germain teammate Edinson Cavani (not to worry, they’ve always got on), another from Lucas Torreira.
With the game being played at The Emirates Stadium, the Arsenal midfielder was in familiar surroundings for the game, and ploughed through Neymar in the 24th minute, picking up a yellow card for his troubles.
Neymar reacted as if he might have suffered a career-ending injury before eventually getting back to his feet, hobbling a bit, and playing the rest of the game.
Linda murra de Torreira a Neymar… pic.twitter.com/TAqF2yyGju
— Federico González (@federix12) November 16, 2018
Neymar, Ronaldo, whoever. If you’re an opponent with the ball, Torreira’s going through you. https://t.co/sKBopwfPU4
— Dan Critchlow (@afcDW) November 16, 2018
Prior to the game, Torreira revealed he was looking forward to playing against Neymar in an interview given to Arsenal’s programme.
“A couple of years ago I played a tournament at Camp Nou with Sampdoria but Neymar didn’t feature,” said Torreira.
“He has a lot of fun with the ball on his feet, he does marvellous tricks, he entertains the crowd.
“Brazil will have to be aware of our players, especially our world class strikers, but we will have to be aware of Neymar. When Neymar gets the ball, he means danger.”
