Portugal national football team coach Luiz Felipe Scolari is a fierce character who is brilliant tactically but immensely histrionic at the same time. It seems that his playing career in Brazil, when he was often sent off for excessive arguing with the referees, didn’t fully satisfy him and now the World Cup winning coach is all out to fill that hole by fighting with the players.
During Wednesday’s Euro 2008 qualifier against Serbia in Group A at the Jose Alvalade stadium in Lisbon, Scolari’s temper flew out of control and he burst into his wonted state of irascibility. He was caught on camera grazing Serbian player Ivica Dragutinovic in the face with a left hook as a touchline melee threatened to ruin what was a highly entertaining match between the two teams.
Serbia had scored the equalizer with just 4 minutes left on the clock through a controversial goal and that flared up the tension. In the dying minutes of the match with the game locked at 1-1 the Serbian team kicked the ball out of play because one of their players was injured and Portugal didn’t return possession. The Portugal coach was obviously annoyed at this and decided to participate in the touchline melee.
Scolari faced off with Serbia’s 31-year old Sevilla FC centre-back Ivica Dragutinović and then flipped at him. The 58-year old Brazilian was observed to unleash a half-hearted (yet closed fiat) punch that just grazed the player’s cheek. Dragutinovic then responded by wagging his finger at Scolari and had to be restrained by his team mates from marching on to hit him.
When all television footage suggests that Scolari deliberately tried to hit Dragutinovic in the face, Big Phil says otherwise. He denies that he intended to hit anyone and says that he was actually trying to defend one of his players by raising his arm.
Scolari told the SIC Channel:
The image is a lie. I never touched him.
European football governing body UEFA is set to investigate the incident and Scolari could face a sanction should he found guilty . Scolari led Brazil to World Cup triumph in 2002 against all expectations and has been acknowledged as the mastermind behind Portugal’s success in Euro 2004 where they finished runner-up and in the 2006 World Cup where they reached the semi-finals. Portugal are currently third in their qualifying group, 4 points behind first-placed Poland with a game in hand.
Image Source: Telegraph.UK
Source: Bloomberg
