Paris Saint-Germain star Neymar was involved in a tense handshake incident with referee Ortiz Arias on Wednesday evening after the French side were held in their latest Champions League outing.
The Ligue 1 giants travelled to the Portuguese capital in midweek to face off with their Group H rivals having won each of their opening two fixtures. They enjoyed a dream start too with Argentine superstar Lionel Messi giving Christophe Galtier’s men the lead with a stunning effort midway through the first-half.
However, they were pinned back before the break as Portuguese international Danilo Pereira put through his own net.
Whilst both sides departed with a point, the atmosphere was not exactly jovial come the final whistle. During the post-match handshakes, Neymar went to give his well wishes to official Arias.
Whilst doing so, the Brazilian appeared to whisper something under his breath to the referee to which he responded by holding onto Neymar’s hand for probably longer than expected.
The former Barcelona man then reacted angrily to being pulled back by throwing his arms up in the air before giving Arias an ironic thumbs up.
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It wasn’t the first time that Neymar had been involved with the officials throughout the game. The 30-year-old was given a booking late in the day for a foul on Benfica’s Florentino.
The incident post-match however might have stirred some memories of a similar clash between former Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel and current Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte.
Following a showdown between the two sides earlier this season, the pair were also involved in a tense incident during their handshakes - Tuchel pulling back Conte and then squaring off with the Italian. However, the German claimed following the game that he was already laughing at the incident.
"No harm was done. He’s from my side,” Tuchel said. “He [Conte] spoke Italian to me so I never know. We didn’t insult each other. I think the thing would have ended if there were not 20 people around us that make the thing look much worse than it was.
"You are right. If you have a reaction like this, you need to live with the reaction. Of course, I laughed about myself. I saw quite some [compilations]. Everybody makes fun of me in the building as you can imagine but it’s okay!”
The incident saw both managers issued with red cards following the full-time whistle with Tuchel only remaining as Chelsea manager for less than a month as he was sacked by Todd Boehly and replaced by Graham Potter.
