Luis Suarez is caught up in a fresh controversy after appearing to bite Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini.
Footage from various angles shows Suarez making contact with the defender, but it is as yet unclear whether he bit or headbutted the Italian.
Chiellini then raises an elbow to Suarez, who dives to the ground.
Shortly after Diego Godin scored for Uruguay, putting them 1-0 up and setting them on course to qualify for the last 16.
It is the latest incident in a string of high profile controversies for Luis Suarez, who bit Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic at the end of the 2012/13 Premier League season.
Vine of the incident shows Suarez making contact with Chiellini, and then Chiellini lashing out after yelling in pain.
Suarez then falls to the ground.
MirrorFootball yesterday asked Suarez if being voted Player of the Year last season by the Football Writers' Association and Professional Footballers' Association meant that he was respected in the UK, after Suarez claimed his attitude was being questioned.
"You work in England, and that was in the papers," said Suarez. "You should know what happened and I think it was nothing more than just in the papers.
"Everybody knows that I was elected the best player of the year. I guess this is very obvious and even the people in the Premier League voted for me and then, if the papers vote for me as well, that is sensational.
"But what happened before the match - I did not want to attack anybody, only some media started making fun of me and you are in the media. You are in the media, you should know what happened and why they did that to me."
Here's a close-up of Giorgio Chiellini's shoulder, with the Italy defender claiming to the ref that Suarez has caused the damage.
Comedian David Schneider was quick to re-open his Suarez joke box.
He tweeted: I've missed all the Suarez jokes. Good to have them back…
Then came the punchline:
 |
| England lacked teeth up front |
Suarez speaks! But side-steps any talk of the bite.
"Uruguay is celebrating, we have qualified and now we are going to celebrate this moment because next we have to start thinking about our next opponents.
"The truth is that the team worked incredibly hard and we deserve it.
"After making a bad start to the group against Costa Rica, the best we deserved was this and we showed that we deserve to stay in this World Cup.
"The heat was incredible and we were worn out."
"These are episodes that condition. The only way they could have hurt us was from set pieces and so it was.
"There will be talk of failure but I would something to say about it. We are not happy with how things have gone but we were the only ones to deserve to progress to the next round."
More from Chiellini:
"The disparity in judgement has been evident. Marchisio's sending off was ridiculous but more so the fact that Suarez wasn't sent off. There's the will to protect champions but... the referee should have shown him a red card.
"There's a clear simulation after, a clear sign that he had done something that he wasn't supposed to.
"The gesture is clear. Referees document themselves on players and Suarez has a very clear history. The referee has given a clear address, he hasn't spoken throughout the game."
No comments:
Post a Comment