MARQUINHOS has revealed that his Paris Saint-Germain team-mate Neymar planned his celebration mocking Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland in advance.
The two teams squared off at an empty Parc des Princes last month with a place in the Champions League quarter-finals on the line.
Marquinhos revealed that Neymar’s celebrations were pre-meditatedCredit: AP:Associated Press
Neymar mocked Erling Haaland’s meditating celebrationCredit: BT Sport
And Neymar, 28, was desperate to help his side overcome their 2-1 deficit from the first leg in Germany.
Haaland, the new talk of the town, had scored a belting brace to fire BVB to a slender advantage for the second meeting in Paris.
The 19-year-old celebrated that night by sitting down and appearing to meditate.
But the Norwegian didn’t stop there, with a Snapchat picture surfacing of the Leeds-born striker in Paris with the caption: “My city, not yours.”
This fired Neymar up, with the Brazilian determined to put elite European football’s young whippersnapper back in his place.
He imitated the meditation celebration after his goal.
The Norwegian had pretended to meditate after scoring in the first legCredit: Getty Images – Getty
And when PSG sealed their place in the next round, following Juan Bernat’s second, Neymar lead the entire team in mocking meditation – as the Ligue 1 champions celebrated their win in raucous fashion.
The final piece of mockery came in the form of an Instagram post, in which PSG’s No10 aimed a last dig at Haaland, using the caption: “Paris is our city, not yours.”
According to defender Marquinhos, putting Haaland in his place had always been Neymar’s plan.
He told YouTube channel Disempedidos: “He likes that. Neymar is not just a football player, he is not afraid and always responds to provocations.
“After his goal, I asked him if he had taken everything out. He warned me, I told him to wait until the end of the match, but he told me to leave it and not to stop it.”
PSG’s celebrations were raucousCredit: AFP or licensors
The scenes saw PSG slapped with a warning for “unsportsmanlike conduct” by Uefa, but the victorious Parisians couldn’t care less.
It is unknown, however, if they will be able to continue in the competition, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
PSG were one of four sides to have already qualified for the quarter-finals, alongside RB Leipzig, Atletico Madrid and Atalanta.
Neymar copies Borussia Dortmund star Erling Haaland’s celebration after opening scoring for PSG
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
