The Brazilian’s attitude is already known in the South American soccer environment Philip Melo, who stands out as a great player (in fact, he just won the Copa Libertadores two years in a row with Palmeiras), but also for driving his rivals and the stands crazy.
Melo has already had several punishments for starting fights on the field. The most serious, a six-match ban for a brawl in a match between Palmeiras and Peñarol, in which he began to provoke his rivals and then attacked Matías Mier, then a player for the Uruguayan club and today a member of Independiente Santa Fe.
On another occasion, when he was playing for Inter Milan, he threw a flying kick at Argentine Lucas Biglia, from Lazio. He was suspended three games.
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The dispute with Eduardo Sosa that changed the game
The Brazilian did not reach those levels on Tuesday at El Campín, but his attitudes did end up influencing the development of the match. At 10 minutes, when Millonarios was already leading 1-0, Larry Vásquez committed a foul in the middle of the field and Melo started an argument with Venezuelan Eduardo Sosa, which ended in a melee involving players from both teams. Referee Darío Herrera resolved the problem by admonishing the two who started the problem.
That action was decisive in the development of the match, because eight minutes later Sosa elbowed a rival in the face and the judge showed him the red card. Already with 10 players, Millonarios lost control of the match and Melo brought out the other facet of him, that of a key player to achieve his team’s goals.
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Felipe Melo also messed with the fans
Coach Abel Braga took him out of the game in the 65th minute, to make way for another experienced ball handler, Ganso. And when he was leaving the field, he passed near the south stand of El Campín and began to provoke the supporters who are located there, putting his hand to his ear and making the gesture that he was not listening to anything.
Felipe Melo was key in Tuesday’s game, for better and for worse. Fortunately, they were not things that happened to adults. He already had a worse record. As he said in an interview in 2015, recalling his origins in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro: “If he wasn’t a footballer he would have been a murderer.”
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