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Neymar and Gianluigi Donnarumma clashed in a dressing room bust-up after Paris Saint-Germain‘s 3-1 Champions League defeat to Real Madrid on Wednesday, sources have confirmed to ESPN.
The Brazil ahead and Italy goalkeeper needed to be separated by teammates after a heated postmatch change on the Bernabeu, with every blaming the opposite for PSG’s round-of-16 exit.
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Kylian Mbappe opened the scoring within the first half — placing PSG in a dominant place, up 2-Zero within the tie — earlier than a dramatic 17-minute hat trick from Karim Benzema noticed Madrid progress to the quarterfinals 3-2 on aggregate.
The loss sparked a livid response from the French membership within the quick aftermath of the match, with president Nasser Al-Khelaifi and sporting director Leonardo seeking to confront the referee over what they known as the “shameful” determination to not rule out Benzema’s first purpose.
Sources advised ESPN that in a separate incident, Neymar and Donnarumma squared up to one another within the dressing room, with the Brazil ahead criticising the goalkeeper for his error forward of Benzema’s 61st-minute equaliser.
Donnarumma allowed himself to be closed down by Benzema and, as he tried to clear the ball, handed it throughout purpose to Vinicius Junior, who pulled it again for Benzema to make it 1-1.
The keeper responded by mentioning that Neymar had conceded possession forward of Madrid’s second purpose, giving the ball away to Luka Modric, who drove ahead to start the transfer that ended with Benzema levelling the tie within the 76th minute.
Neymar responded to reviews of the row on Instagram on Thursday, denying {that a} struggle had taken place.
In a single publish, he revealed a screengrab of a WhatsApp dialog with Donnarumma.
“Hello Ney. Sorry about yesterday. This information story is unacceptable,” the goalkeeper mentioned, earlier than Neymar responded “No worries! That may occur in soccer. We’re a crew, and we’re with you.”
In a second publish, Neymar known as the reviews “a lie” and mentioned “there was no struggle contained in the dressing room!”
Sources near Donnarumma have denied to ESPN that the bust-up occurred.
PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino described the incident that led to Madrid’s first purpose as “a transparent foul.”
“It is unbelievable,” he mentioned. “It is unattainable to just accept. General we had been the higher crew. It is so disappointing.
“The emotion of the sport modified. You give Actual Madrid perception, and on the Bernabeu after all, it is troublesome to handle the state of affairs. The crew was so affected. It is so unfair. It modified the way in which the sport went fully.”
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