Peruvian Defender Calls Neymar a Clown

"Honestly, he's a great player, one of the best in the world, but to me, he's a real clown," declared the Argentine Boca Juniors defender on the television program "La banda del Chino".

Zambrano, who was sent off in the 86th minute of the match played at the Estadio Nacional de Lima for hitting Brazilian forward Richarlison with his arm, considered that the French PSG star faked fouls until he was awarded two penalties for Brazil.

He added that Neymar "is aware of everything he did on the field, he's a great player but he was looking for the slightest thing, he dived like four or five times in the penalty area to see if he would be awarded a penalty and in the end, he achieved his goal, getting two penalties, but they weren't."

Zambrano recalled that the forward also asked the referee of the match, the Chilean Julio Bascuñán, to change the yellow card he had initially shown him for a red card.

"It's Brazil and right away they went to check the VAR. Whether the play was positive or negative, they reviewed the images because it's Brazil," he said, indicating that Bascuñán did not act the same way when the Peruvians asked him to check the images.

Zambrano also apologized for having harmed the Peruvian national team with his expulsion, but assured that it was an accidental play.

"With one less man, it's complicated, things got even more complicated for us. I wasn't very upset about the play, I just tried to cover the play as he was trapped on the line, but unfortunately, I hit him in the face. I also apologized to Richarlison because it was unintentional and I remained calm because I knew what had happened," he emphasized.

The result of the match, in which the Peruvians took the lead twice, has generated great controversy in Peru, to the point that the Peruvian Football Federation (FPF) announced that it will file a complaint against Bascuñán, and its sports director, Juan Carlos Oblitas, considered the referee to be "malicious and tendentious."