Manchester United hosted Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League today. PSG winger Ángel Di María once enjoyed a brief and ignominious tenure at United. These two facts made for a predictably tetchy atmosphere at Old Trafford, with the United fans wanting to express their still simmering anger at their former player and Di María wanting to show them up. As you could tell from the scoreline (a 2-0 PSG victory), from Di María’s outstanding performance, and from the man’s eruption of joyous rage after PSG’s first goal as captured in the GIF above, it’s clear which party came away happier.
It was clear United fans had it out for Di María from the first minute. Whenever he touched the ball or got near one of the sidelines, the Old Trafford faithful unleashed wave after wave of boos upon him. The Argentine forward acknowledged this treatment early on, at one point gesturing both that he heard the crowds’ boos and that he was in no way intimidated:
Di María demonstrated just how little he was bothered by the public reception when he assisted PSG’s first goal, from a corner kick, and proceeded to bellow all kinds of “Fuck offs” in both English and Spanish at his detractors:
Not long after the opening goal, Di María went over to take another corner, was subject to more verbal harassment, and cheekily blew a kiss to the salty United fans. This inspired one of them to tossed a bottle of beer at him. Yet again, Di María was unfazed:
The former Red Devil added more injury to his insults with another assist a little later, this time finding the warp drive-powered Kylian Mbappé on the counter to put PSG up two:
It’s hard not to feel good for Di María for rubbing United fans’ noses in their own shit. However, it would be smart if he made sure not to forget who got the last laugh the last time he tried this stunt.