Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez’s heroics in the penalty shootout saw the Villans seal a berth in the UEFA Conference League semi-finals.
The Argentina international isn’t popular in France after helping his national team beat them in the World Cup final. It was expected for the Aston Villa star would receive abuse from Lille fans, who booed him throughout the game on Thursday.
Indeed, Lille fans group came out publicly prior to the match to explain that’s exactly what they’d do.
Martinez received a yellow card for delaying to take a goal kick during the game, causing more annoyance to the home supporters. He also shushed the Lille fans after saving Nabil Bentaleb’s penalty during the shootout.
French newspaper L’Equipe gave him a rating of 8/10, which, as per their standards, is a very good standard. However, the majority of the coverage from the French media on the 31-year-old indicates they haven’t taken the Ligue 1 side’s elimination very well.
To give you an example, former Lille midfielder Ludovic Obraniak, who’s now a consultant for L’Equipe, launched an attack on the Aston Villa stopper.
“Thank you Lille, proud of you!!! and Martinez eat all your dead !!!!!!!!!!” he said, as quoted by Le Figaro.
That’s a common French insult, which when taken literally means to tell someone to go and eat their dead ancestors. It’s a sign of serious disrespect.
Lille president Olivier Létang was also critical of the South American and said his attitude isn’t that of a “very high-level athlete”.
Despite all of this, the World Cup winner has tried to calm things down.
“During all my years at Arsenal and Aston Villa, I played with French people, they are good people. I love them, but I know that when I play big matches against them, I will be whistled. I am just focused on my club, my country, and I want to perform well with Aston Villa,” the Aston Villa player told Canal+ Foot, relayed by Daily Sports.
Maybe it’s time for the French media to also calm things down a bit. Nevertheless, it’s obviously highly entertaining to see how annoyed some have got.
