Luis Enrique benches Dani Alves following his video
The Brazilian was left out of the starting XI to face Valencia at Camp Nou on Sunday as punishment for his controversial Instagram post following Wednesday night's defeat in Madrid.
Dani Alves was relegated to the bench on Sunday night as Barcelona played hosts to Valencia as punishment for posting an inappropriate video shortly after the Catalans were sent crashing out of the Champions League by Atlético Madrid. Wearing a wig, the Brazilian mimicked his girlfriend and in tongue-in-cheek fashion talked about how tragic Wednesday’s elimination from the European competition was. Responding to the bizarre act, Luis Enrique decided to not include the South American in his starting XI to face Los Che.
Alves’ reaction to being sent out of the continental competition stood in stark contrast to how the rest of his team-mates acted. Instead of keeping his head down or apologising to the fans for the disappointing result, he took to Instagram to impersonate his better half: “Hello! Joana Sanz here. I'd like to send a message to my darling as he's down in the dumps. Honey, don't worry, it's just a game of football. Life goes on. You're worth much more than that. OK? I love you loads, I love you my darling. I love you!".