The Brazilian’s shimmy came back to bite him (Picture: Getty Images)
Aston Villa midfielder Douglas Luiz has played down the backlash over his cheeky celebration against Manchester United and says it was simply a reference to the Brazilian carnival.
The 25-year-old had dropped to one knee and shimmied his shoulders right in front of Raphael Varane, Andre Onana and the United back-line after netting a 67th minute equaliser to cancel out Rasmus Hojlund’s first-half opener.
But he ended up with egg on his face when Scott McTominay bagged an 86th-minute winner for the visitors, with Varane making a beeline for the Brazilian afterwards.
The two players squared off while the rest of the United team celebrated, with the veteran Frenchman clearly having been wound up by Luiz’s earlier dance moves, and they had to be separated by referee Robert Jones.
Luiz was mocked mercilessly on social media afterwards too, with former United defender Rio Ferdinand even uploading a picture of the celebration and tagging the midfielder alongside the caption: ‘U ok?’
Some 16 hours after Ferdinand’s dig, Luiz finally broke his silence on his controversial shimmy and says it was just a nod to Brazil’s carnival season – which started on Friday and ends this Saturday.
Replying directly to Ferdinand on social media website X, Luiz posted: ‘I’m good, thanks. It’s just carnival time in Brazil.’
Luiz might have regretted his over-exuberant celebration (Picture: Getty)
Speaking after the match, United manager Erik ten Hag suggested Luiz’s celebration might have played a part in his side’s late rally to grab a winning goal.
Asked if his players were itching to shut Luiz up, the Dutch coach said: ‘I don’t have an opinion about that. I haven’t spoken to the players.
‘Maybe it’s fuelling, I don’t know. I don’t think it is important. It is about us, we have to think about our game and not the opposition.’
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Villa boss Unai Emery, meanwhile, felt his side merited the win, telling Sky Sports: ‘We did everything we planned. We controlled the game and we avoided the transitions and we didn’t concede a lot of chances.
‘We created chances but we couldn’t score some clear chances. I am very proud of our work and of the players. We are playing against the mighty Manchester United but we are being more consistent in matches in the league. The result is tough for us and difficult to accept but that is football. We played like we planned and we deserved more.
‘We created chances and sometimes we are being clinical and sometimes we aren’t, like today. But these are the ideas that we wanted.
‘We created through our identity and our style. Sometimes we will be clinical and sometimes we won’t be. We wanted to have control of the game and avoid transitions. That was the first idea we had and we did.’
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