Last week, West Ham recorded a 1-0 win over Anderlecht in UEFA Conference League action, where Lucas Paqueta impressed on his third appearance in Europe for the Hammers.
The £51m man was introduced from the bench by David Moyes in the 69th minute, and was in the mood to showboat against the Belgian giants.
Paqueta – in addition to assisting Gianluca Scamacca for the only goal of the game – pulled off an outstanding rabona touch, which left Tomas Soucek and Aaron Cresswell in awe on the sidelines.
However, one man was not happy with the Brazilian’s tricks.
West Ham star Lucas Paqueta angered Amadou Diawara
Nobody likes to be humiliated on a football pitch, including Anderlecht No.21 Amadou Diawara.
Speaking to La Dernière Heure about the defeat to West Ham, the 25-year-old revealed that he was not happy with Paqueta for showboating, and decided to “put a stamp on it” by getting rough with the South American.
Diawara said: “That’s the mentality I use on the pitch. I want to fight until the end. Last week against West Ham, when Paqueta showed a few skills as soon as he came into the pitch, I put a stamp on it. We can’t tolerate letting people play like this, especially at home. I wanted to show him that he was not at home.”
Hopefully, the 25-year-old paid no attention to the Guinea international.
Entertainers are a dying breed in football, with players becoming far more robotic and system orientated nowadays in comparison to those who got you off of your seat, such as Ronaldinho.
Paqueta is a rare breed in that sense, and hopefully he continues to showboat even if he receives a few kicks for his troubles.
Lucas Paqueta takes West Ham up a level
In the 1-0 win over Anderlecht, Paqueta set up Scamacca for the winning goal just ten minutes after being introduced from the bench.
It takes some doing to influence a match so quickly from the sidelines, which shows just how much quality the South American has in his locker.
If Paqueta can avoid picking up any injuries from opponents taking their anger out on him, he should prove to be a match winner for West Ham more often than not.
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