Pepe: Hilarious Footage of FC Porto Star Diving Like a ‘Dolphin’ Leaves Fans in Stitches

Pepe: Hilarious Footage of FC Porto Star Diving Like a ‘Dolphin’ Leaves Fans in Stitches

Godwin Nii Armah Tagoe
updated at April 12, 2023 at 8:24 PM
  • FC Porto's Portuguese League Cup victory over Sporting Lisbon was punctuated by a hilarious incident involving one of their attackers
  • Pepe, who joined Porto from the Brazilian club Gremio, stole the headlines for the wrong reasons
  • His action during the final left football fans in stitches

An incident which occurred during the Portuguese League Cup final between FC Porto and Sporting Lisbon has left football fans laughing uncontrollably..

Ten-man Sporting lost the game 2-0 to rivals FC Porto at the Estadio Dr Magalhaes Pessoa following goals from Eustaquio and Marcano either side of a Paulinho red card.

FC Porto, Pepe, dive, Portuguese League Cup, Sporting Lisbon
Pepe hilariously went to the ground without being tackled by Sporting players during the Portuguese League Cup final. Photo credit: @eurofootcom
Source: Twitter

But the highlight of the keenly-contested match saw one of Porto's attackers, Pepe, hilariously trying to evade a tackle from his marker by diving.

In a video making the rounds on social media, the 25-year-old, who was trying to bypass the tree of legs in front of the Sporting penalty box lost his footing before opting to dive.

Exciting feature: Check out news exactly for YOU ➡️ click on "Recommended for you" and enjoy!

The manner of his dive, which came without any contact from a Sporting player, irked football fans while others made lightweight of the incident.

Football fans react to Pepe's dive

@whooisdudu claimed diving is synonymous with players of FC Porto:

"diving like that is rooted in that “team”

Another user @Chine7767, who was less enthused by the dive called the player:

"Big thief"

@Psalmopet described the incident as a joke:

"What a joke"

@inspiredMichael added:

"He's an ocean diver!"

@robinvanpolar eulogized the dive:

"The GOAT of Divers."

Here is the video:

What is a dive in football?

Diving is one of the most controversial aspects of football.

The term is used when a player attempts to gain an unfair advantage on the opposition team by falling to the ground easily, per GOAL.

It usually involves the player feigning injury, giving the impression to the referee that a foul has been committed.

While it is universally regarded as an ill in the sport, many footballers have deployed it and to a larger extent perfected it into art by some players.

De Bruyne slammed for diving

Sports Brief earlier reported that Kevin De Bruyne produced another man-of-the-match performance as Manchester City left it late to secure an important 2-1 win against Fulham despite playing most of the match with 10 men.

However, the Belgian was later heavily criticized for theatrically winning the penalty, and some thought it was a blatant dive.

The manner the Belgian won the penalty angered many rival fans who felt he went down too easily as City were chasing a winner, according to Sportbible.

Authors
Godwin Nii Armah Tagoe photo
Godwin Nii Armah Tagoe
Godwin Nii Armah Tagoe is a Ligue 1, Bundesliga, and La Liga editor with five-year experience. He previously worked with Sports Corna and 360SportsGH.
Tags
World