A banana thrown onto the field at the Emirates Stadium Saturday took some of the luster of Brazil’s 2-0 defeat of Scotland in which young star Neymar scored both goals.
Shortly after Neymar scored the second goal with a penalty kick, teammate Lucas Leiva removed a banana from the field. Not clear is when the banana was thrown or whether it was adirect reference to Neymar, who nevertheless admitted the incident and some jeering he heard from the crowd upset him.
“I was running down the touchline in the second half and saw [thebanana] but I didn’t see where it came from,” said Neymar, 19. “They were jeering me a lot, even when I was about to kick the penalty. The entire stadium was jeering. This atmosphere of racism istotally sad. We leave our country to play here and something like this happens. It’s sad.”
When asked about the incident, Lucas said: “There is no more space for racism in the world. Theysay it’s the first world here in Europe but it’s where it happens the most. That has to change. Everybody is equal today. It’s a matter of respect.”