Alves gets involved in the war between Neymar and Cavani
The PSG right-back tried to explain why he'd denied the ball to Cavani at a free-kick, before handing it straight to fellow Brazilian Neymar.
Neymar, Cavani and, in the middle, Alves. The tension between the first two to take PSG's penalties and freekicks is evident [it's on the front page of L'Equipe] and the Brazilian right-back has decided to get involved, and he's quite plainly on his countryman's side.
Alves hides the ball from Cavani
The scene was set in the 48th minute. Neymar was fouled just outside the box and Dani Alves imposed himself in a bid to get the ball while his teammate was still on the ground. Cavani bustled over looking to get his hands on the ball, but the former Barcelona and Juventus player kept hiding it from him, despite his ever more anxious pleas. But as soon as Neymar got up and came over, Alves was quite happy to hand the ball to him.
Alves tries to explain his behaviour
Alves explained the situation after the match, attempting to deny he'd shown any favouritism to his Brazilian teammate: "I was going to take it. I got the ball to take the free-kick, because I've scored some stunning goals", said the right-back. "I was confident. But that's not important. What's important is that the team is more important than any individual. At that point I wanted to take responsibility, but then Ney took the ball and ended up shooting. I took the ball with the aim of shooting, but unfortunately I couldn't".
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