Another week in football, another set of funny incidents to go with all the thrills and spills. This week’s action comes in from all across the globe with a couple of Premier League giants, La Liga table toppers and Ligue 1 Champions all involved. The icing on the cake, however, comes from the African Cup of Nations, where Algeria’s exit was sealed among other things by some very innovative time wasting by the opposition.
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From managers losing it against referees to going “wild” against their own players, with a daft celebration thrown in for good measure – we’ve scoured the world of football to bring you the funniest moments to lighten up that mood.
#5 Arsene Wenger pushes fourth official after being sent to the stands
In the tense game against Burnley which Arsenal won courtesy of a controversial penalty from Alexis Sanchez in the 98th minute, Arsene Wenger was sent to the stands for abusing the fourth official. He was complaining about the penalty awarded to Burnley in the 93rd minute. However, things got out of hand in the heat of the moment.
While he moved away from the technical area, Wenger stopped at the entrance of the tunnel to watch out the rest of the game, and when approached by Anthony Taylor to make his way into the stands, he pushed the official in a way most reminiscent of a petulant child.
He has now been charged by the FA for misconduct and likely faces a touchline ban, but it was perhaps his resilience that inspired his team to display the same on the pitch.
#4 Jurgen Klopp going “wild” against Firmino and Coutinho
With Liverpool reaching out to their Chinese fans regarding the Year of the Rooster in this video, we see the eccentric Jurgen Klopp speaking in Chinese with Deng Yaping – the Chinese athlete of the century. He later goes on to team up with her student Liu Haoyu to take on Roberto Firmino and Phillippe Coutinho in a game of ping pong.
While funny moments are guaranteed to ensue, Klopp – who claims he hasn’t played the sport since 1987 – turns up the heat by going “wild” against his charges. Coutinho and Firmino go on to debate whether they should let the boss win – the latter deciding that they shouldn’t. However, they soon find out matters might not quite be in their hands. Watch the video to find out how it goes down!
#3 Marco Veratti receives a yellow card for trickery
PSG’s Marco Veratti received a bizarre yellow card in their game against Nantes with a move that left even the commentators in splits. Under no real pressure from the opposition, Veratti decided to pass the ball back to his goalkeeper by getting down on all-fours and heading it in Kevin Trapp’s direction. He would have been better off simply using his feet since Trapp didn’t handle the ball, but ended up getting a yellow card from the referee for using trickery to circumvent the spirit of the game.
You can read more about the rules under which Veratti was booked here.
#2 Sergio Ramos’ dab gone wrong
After seeing Real Madrid slump to their second consecutive loss due to his own goal, Sergio Ramos bounced back on the weekend with a brace that saw his side get their title challenge back on track against Malaga. Having bundled the ball over the line from a Toni Kroos free kick, Ramos wrapped up his celebrations by dabbing along with teammate Lucas Vasquez.
However, he perhaps forgot to practise the move beforehand – not quite managing it with the flair of Pogba for example – and ended up being trolled on Twitter.
#1 Khadim N’Diaye’s innovative time-wasting
On Jan 23rd Senegal took on Algeria in their final group game of the African Cup of Nations having already progressed to the quarter-finals and knowing that anything short of a win would mean certain elimination for their opponents. With the scores level at 2 – 2 Riyad Mahrez sent a gilt-edged chance flying over the bar.
What followed was pure innovation. Senegal’s custodian decided to make certain there wouldn’t be many more scoring chances coming Algeria’s way by running down the clock; seeking medical assistance for an injury. While there’s usually nothing funny about injuries on the football pitch, this one was self-inflicted with the clear intention of wasting time – the exact mechanism of which you’ll be rewarded with towards the end of this video.
Not so funny for Algeria though, who went from being one of the tournament favourites to crashing out at the first hurdle.
