Goalkeeper Emiliano ‘Dibu’ Martínez, one of Argentina’s protagonists in winning the last World Cup and famous for being an ‘antagonist’ of the French, disagreed with a statement made by Kylian Mbappé, France number 10.
Mbappe said that the European Championship is more difficult than a World Cup, because all the teams already know each other and because of the level of the teams. However, Dibu disagrees with this statement, saying that there is nothing more difficult than the World Cup.
“This year’s Copa America is going to be tougher than the last. But there’s nothing more difficult than a World Cup, we all know (laughs). They are different cities, you travel every three days, with a lot of heat, hot training, only on the 40th day of the competition do you play the final, the wear and tear is huge,” Dibu told ‘TyC Sports’.
Dibu, who is a goalkeeper for England’s Aston Villa, played against France’s Lille last season in the Europa League. As it was his first time going to the country since Argentina beat the French in the World Cup final, the archer was very harassed.
“They’ve insulted me the whole game, they’ve never insulted me so much in my entire life, they’ve thrown a lot at me. In the 120 minutes I didn’t make any gestures. In the penalty shootout I stopped first and silenced the stands that insulted me…”, reported the goalkeeper about the episode.
See below a photo gallery of Dibu Martínez:
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