Rangers’ Peralta blasts Neymar after Brazil loss

Brazilian forward Neymar takes a tumble in the presence of Rangers and Honduras player Arnold Peralta. Picture: Getty

RANGERS player Arnold Peralta had an extraordinary bust-up with Brazilian superstar Neymar after his Honduran side were destroyed by the Barcelona forward.

Peralta and Celtic defender Emilio Izaguirre featured as Honduras were ripped apart 5-0 by the World Cup hosts in Miami. The game featured a running battle between Honduran right-back Peralta and Neymar.

Neymar refused to shake Peralta’s hand after the game and later posted pictures on his Twitter account of his bruised and bloodied legs after the fiery encounter, with the caption, ‘great victory...just about got out alive.’

However, Peralta accused him of being an actor after their clashes.

He said: “He is a player who 100 per cent plays like he belongs in a theatre. He plays for the fans, not for his team mates. You can’t play against him because he complains to the ref all the time and the ref gives him everything.

“We all know you cannot touch him because he goes down straight away. The slightest contact and he drops and the referees always fall for it. He was difficult to play against, but I wasn’t going to let him get past me just because he is Neymar.”

The former Santos youngster was in no mood to bury the hatchet after the game either. Peralta revealed: “When we headed for the dressing room, I tried to apologise to him for a tackle I had made on him. But he screamed ‘no!’ I had to grab some friends of his instead to pass the message on.” Brazil scored four second-half goals in the win, with Bernard, Dante, Maicon, Willian and Hulk all netting. Substitute Robinho stood out in the second half in his first international appearance in two years.

Honduras took the game to Brazil in the early stages and put in some aggressive tackling.

However, Brazil gradually took control and opened the scoring in the 21st minute when Paulinho took possession on the right and delivered an inviting low cross for Bernard to strike home from eight yards.

They doubled their lead in the 54th minute when a Dante header hit two Honduran defenders, wrongfooted goalkeeper Valladares and rolled into the net.

Brazil’s third was similarly scrappy, Valladares parrying a Paulinho shot only as far as Maicon, who had the 
easiest of tap-ins in the 65th minute.

Substitute Hulk had been on the field just three minutes when he provided a cut-back for Willian to score his first international goal with a side-foot finish from 12 yards out and he completed the rout in the 73rd minute when he finished an excellent team move by curling a left-foot shot into the corner of the net.