Colombia have a World Cup qualifier against Bolivia on Thursday, and Luis Diaz‘s manager has accused their opponents of spying on their training sessions ahead of the fixture.
Liverpool’s No. 7 is one of 19 senior players on international duty this month, with the winger expected to feature prominently in Colombia’s two qualifiers.
The first is against Bolivia (Thursday, 9pm UK), who Colombia manager Nestor Lorenzo has accused of spying on his side as they prepared for the match.
In his pre-match press conference, Lorenzo said: “It is unfortunate that they send you to spy and that I don’t know where he came from or who he was, but we identified him.
“We have photos and we report the case there,” he explained, via Gol Caracol.
“Of course, one wants to train with the discretion that one deserves, and what happened was a breach of the privacy of the team.
“We have photographed the person of everything, we will see how we proceed in these hours.”
The implication, of course, is that the Colombian Football Federation have filed a formal complaint with the evidence they have acquired.
As per ESPN, Bolivia manager Oscar Villegas played down the accusation by pointing out that images of his team’s training sessions have also been leaked, despite taking place behind closed doors.
It is seemingly not the only incident. El Espectador reported that Colombia were warned Bolivia would attempt to overinflate the balls and a trainer had issues entering the country.
The international break, eh? It is never dull.
Back on the pitch, the challenge for Diaz and his teammates will be to adjust to the match being played in a stadium located at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters – which will severely test their fitness.
