Raphinha goes on furious rant over conditions – ‘Very damaging’

Barcelona and Brazil forward Raphinha has complained about the conditions of Bolivia’s home stadium in El Alto. The highest stadium in the world, the oxygen levels are much lower than in most other venues, and the Selecao came away with a 1-0 defeat from their final South American World Cup qualifier.

Raphinha came on for the final half hour of the clash, with Brazil losing the match to the Andean national team. After the game, Raphinha came out to lobby for change, feeling the Bolivian side had an unfair advantage as a result of the altitude, which Bolivia’s players are accustomed to, and other national teams often struggle to run in.

“From the moment a team makes you play at 4,000 meters above sea level in order to win the match, I think that it is very damaging to other teams,” he commented, as relayed by Sport. “And then, in a balanced match like the one we were playing, the referee invented a penalty. I think that makes our game on the field even more difficult.”

Others argue that Bolivia has little in the way of funding or population with which to stand up to nations like Brazil or Argentina, and are simply playing to their advantages.

An historic victory over Brazil, it served the Bolivia side to make it into the World Cup play-off. They will face off against another side from Asia or Oceania for a place in the USA, Mexico and Canada, as they hope to return to world stage for the first time in 32 years. Indeed, Bolivia will point out that despite the ‘invented penalty’,  they outshot Brazil 23 times to 10, and had 10 shots on target to Brazil’s three.

Venezuela were in position to make it to the play-off themselves, and took the lead twice at home to Colombia. However they could not hang on at home, and ended up losing 6-3. Manager Fernando Batista subsequently apologised and resigned from his position.

As is the case for any side with players traveling to face Bolivia, Barcelona will be concerned by Raphinha’s condition after the altitude. There are no guarantees on what state he will be in by the time he is back in Catalonia, which will likely open the door to a spot in the team for Marcus Rashford this weekend.