S*** really hit the fan during Barcelona and Espanyol’s Copa del Rey match, and Luis Suarez talking trash played no small part.
It has been roughly 24 hours since the final whistle blew and ever news outlet with at least a passing focus on football is printing various quotes from the post-game interviews, dissecting the official match report, and lip reading what the stars said during the match.
Social media is filled with salty Barcelona fans, gloating Barcelona fans, and people dissing Espanyol (sorry Espanyol, but your fan base is simply dwarfed by Barcelona’s).
The madness has seriously overshadowed two absolutely stunning goals, a.k.a. arguably the reason that we watch the game.
For those who aren’t aware, Espanyol took the physical side of the game to a controversial level. There were fouls, dirty plays, trash talking involving mothers, and red cards. Espanyol wasn’t trying to make friends, they just wanted to win the game. They didn’t, and now they are dealing with the backlash of their actions.
That being said, Barcelona’s Luis Suarez was one of the biggest participants in the back and forth that took place during the match. Actually a few of Barcelona’s players got involved in one way or another, but Suarez, as per usual, stands out the most as the smoke clears.
Photo: @goal_intl | Twitter
He was confrontational after the match, and waited for Espanyol’s players in the tunnel leading to the locker rooms. According the the referee’s report, once they arrived Suarez yelled, “I'm waiting for you, come here! You're a waste of space.” Unsurprisingly, this “provoked a confrontation between players of both clubs and the present security guards had to get involved, as did coaches of both teams."
It is not surprising that Luis Suarez almost started a team vs. team fight after the game. His history of antagonization will be addressed in a little, but Suarez had been talking trash to Espanyol during the game as well. At one point in the match he confronted Espanyol goalkeeper Pau Lopez, who intentionally stomped on Messi’s leg during the match, and yelled, “I have five titles, but you all? How many do you have? How many do you have you idiot?”
This is hardly the first time Suarez has talked smack and came out victorious, or, for that matter, turned to unsportsmanlike tactics in order to protect himself or his team. He has a reputation for doing so. It’s part of his mystique, or what makes him so easy to hate, depending on your point of view. He is an effective antagonizer; he might brother a defense for 90 minutes and score four amazing goals, or he might simply choose to bite its best defender.
At the age of 28, Suarez doesn’t seem to be getting any more tame. This by all means is good for Barcelona. Whenever he lets himself go, he usually gets what he wants.
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