Carlos Bacca’s mother has admitted she would have clobbered Neymar with her high heel if she had been in the Estadio Monumental for the ill-tempered Copa América game between Colombia and Brazil on Wednesday night.
Eloísa Ahumada told the Colombian regional paper El Heraldo that she had lost her calm watching the fiery tie in which Neymar and Bacca were both sent off at the end of the match.
Colombia beat Brazil 1-0 to exact some measure of revenge for their defeat in the World Cup quarter-finals last year, in which tempers also boiled over. But their latest victory over the five-times world champions ended with a mass brawl when Neymar petulantly head-butted Colombia’s goalscorer Jeison Murillo and Bacca responded angrily by shoving the Brazil star in the back. Both players were sent off and Neymar was given a four-match ban that rules him out for the rest of the tournament.
“I felt anger and helplessness; I wanted to be there to push him [Bacca] away so they couldn’t hit him because it could have been serious,” Bacca’s mother said afterwards. “But if I’d have been in the stadium I would have taken off my high heel and hit Neymar; I know many women in the stadium would have joined me.”
The Sevilla striker Bacca has been linked with a move to Milan and Arsenal after scoring 20 La Liga goals last season, but will now miss Colombia’s next two games following a ban for violent behaviour. He left the Santiago stadium with his shirt torn apart.
Bacca’s reaction did not please his mother however, who ironically warned: “I didn’t teach him things like that … I was really annoyed because I’ve never seen this attitude of Carlos in the game before and so I sent him a message telling him off because he didn’t need to react that way.”
Colombia face Peru while Brazil take on Venezuela in the final Copa América Group C games later on Sunday, with all four countries tied on three points.
Uruguay, Bolivia, Argentina and Paraguay have already qualified for the quarter-finals.
