Douglas Costa Sent Off For Despicable Spit, Moments After Horrendous Elbow And Idiotic Headbutt

Maybe Douglas Costa doesn’t like sharing the spotlight with Cristiano Ronaldo? How else do you explain the shocking events that unfolded in the lead-up to the Douglas Costa red card on Sunday?

Ronaldo scored his first and second Juventus goals against Sassuolo on Sunday. The first was a simple tap-in but the second was pretty good. 

Ronaldo probably could’ve scored another goal or three to put the match away, but as it was, Juventus had to sweat in the end of a 2-1 victory, in part because of the Douglas Costa red card in the 93rd minute.

The incident had to go to VAR but it played out like this: Douglas Costa took out Federico Di Francesco with a hard tackle. When Di Francesco got up, Douglas Costa smashed him with a nasty shoulder/elbow to the chin. Douglas Costa then headbutted Di Francesco right in front of the referee and somehow only received a yellow card. 

Soon after, Douglas Costa spat in Di Francesco’s face. VAR told the referee and the Douglas Costa red card finally came out after his third or fourth nasty offense. 

What happens to Douglas Costa to do this (The penalty will be great and well deserved) pic.twitter.com/Nhic5YyMF6

— Midiablilla (@Qmlachuperoures) September 16, 2018

First, he elbows him in the face, then he headbutts him, and he finishes it off by spitting in Di Francesco's face. Disgusting behavior by Douglas Costa. Spitting in a player's face is one of the worst things you can do on a football pitch. Deserves a very long ban. pic.twitter.com/qWUy5slROy

— EiF (@EiFSoccer) September 16, 2018

Here’s a higher quality video of the spit, at about 0:47 in the video below.

We can’t say what got into Douglas Costa’s head late in the match, but he absolutely lost it. Maybe Di Francesco made a disparaging comment about his mom or sister, but nothing excuses this sort of behavior.

While spitting is particularly demeaning, personally I think the elbow and headbutt are worse — physical attacks are never excusable.

Fortunately, VAR was around to tell the referee to get the misbehaving Brazilian off the pitch. If justice is to be fully served, Serie A will hand him a long ban for the elbow the referee (and VAR) obviously missed.