The Time Alvaro Gonzalez Was Mocked By Lionel Messi

Neymar was sent off on Sunday night for hitting Alvaro Gonzalez, after the Marseille player allegedly verbally abused and was racist towards the PSG forward.

It is not the first time that the former Espanyol defender has verbally abused one of the world's best forward's either, as he previously had a run in with Lionel Messi.

Gonzalez was speaking to RMC about an exchange he had with Messi, when he commented on the Barca forward's height, and found himself stung by a brilliant comeback, saying, "It is quite a funny anecdote. It was period where we had three consecutive derbies between Espanyol and Barcelona. Matches of great intensity.

We used to banter each other back and forth. I said to him: 'You are really small, miniscule.' He looks at me and responds: 'You, you are really bad at football.' I had the final word: 'Yes, we are both right.' We laughed together and this story brought about a lot of smiles in Spain."

The 1-0 win for Marseille in Paris was their first against the French champions in nearly nine years, stretching back to November 2011, but instead of being able to celebrate the game ended in a melee.

Five players were sent off as everyone got involved when Dario Benedetto nudged Leandro Paredes. The midfielder retaliated by punching the Marseille player and both men were sent off.

Full backs Layvin Kurzawa and Jordan Amavi then threw punches and kicks at each other and were then both shown second yellow cards to make it two players sent off each.

Just as the referee looked set to get things underway again he was spoken to by the VAR official who told him to go over to the monitor and check the video.

That showed Neymar hitting Gonzalez in the back of the head and the official was left with no choice but to show the Brazilian his marching orders.

Only when he went off the pitch did the former Barcelona man tell the assistant referee and the television cameras of the racist abuse.

After the match the centre back took to Twitter to deny the allegations of racism.

Topics: Marseille, Football News, Barcelona, Ligue 1, PSG, Neymar, Lionel Messi, Spain, France, La Liga

Ryan Sidle

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