“No one will shout at the athletes”: Felipe Melo explains the confusion after the match between Manchester City and Fluminense – Club World Cup

The experienced Brazilian midfielder says it all started thanks to Jack Grealish's comment towards Martinelli

Felipe Melo, Kyle Walker and Jack Grealish were the heroes of the unfortunate scenes at the end of the match between Manchester City and Fluminense, the Club World Cup final won by the Citizens. 4-0. The three players began a series of shoves shortly after the referee blew the final whistle, and this trio was later separated by the remaining players and members on the benches of both teams.

Speaking to Brazilian journalists in Jeddah, the Saudi city that hosted the final stage of the continental club competition, Felipe Melo justified his behaviour, claiming that it all arose after a comment from Jack Grealish towards Martinelli.

“I've said it here again and I'll say it again: sorry for the strong words, but I already see a lot of idiots talking a lot about 'nonsense', as was the case against Gremio, which is what I said.” “Chaos started. I didn't cause any confusion, I simply went to defend my player, Martinelli, who said Grealish was disrespectful. He plays for a national team, he's a great player, but he's disrespectful and started shouting 'Ole'. In the end, Naturally, our players started to piss everyone off. When the match ended, Grealish chose a smaller athlete [n.d.r.: Martinelli tem 22 anos] He chased Martinelli. When he saw Felipe Melo he started to act like a victim,” the experienced midfielder began to say, in comments reported by “TNT Sports”.

“We had a great season, with great matches. We won 10-0 in South America, last season, and we always respected that a lot. We beat our biggest rival this season 4-1 and we always respected that. We beat a rival” . “One of the five biggest clubs in the world, which is River, and we have always respected them. We beat Boca Juniors and we have always respected them. So, the least we have to do is respect them. Now, if that suddenly happens, it is a bad influence to do what I did, to defend… About my colleagues and my organization, I will do this forever. No one will disrespect the athletes and no one will yell at the athletes. This is what happened.” Reporting what happened: “When he chased Martinelli in the game, he chose 'small' and Martinelli would show up, talk to him, and I would go after him. “I pushed him, Walker came to the side and pushed me too and I chased them, and went to defend a teammate.”

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