Colombia women’s team make touching Luis Diaz gesture after parent death

Colombia women’s team make touching Luis Diaz gesture after parent death

Nelson Abadía’s side showed their support for the Liverpool forward ahead of their clash with the United States

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ByBeth Lindop
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Diaz’ parents were kidnapped in Colombia on Saturday (Image: Photo by Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images)
The Colombia women’s national team showed their support for Luis Diaz with a classy gesture ahead of their clash with the United States.

Nelson Abadía’s side were beaten 3-0 by the four-time world champions in a friendly at the Snapdragon Stadium in California on Sunday evening. However, there was a poignant moment ahead of kick-off as the Colombian players held up Diaz’ shirt during the national anthem.

The parents of the Liverpool forward were kidnapped on Saturday evening in the Los Olivos neighbourhood of Barrancas, in Guajira. His mother, Cilenis Marulanda, has been found safe however the whereabouts of his father, Luis Manuel Diaz, are still unknown.

READ MORE: Jurgen Klopp gives Luis Diaz update and reveals steps Liverpool are taking to help

READ MORE: Linda Pizzuti sends Luis Diaz message after parents of Liverpool star kidnapped

The gesture from the Colombian team came hours after Diogo Jota had shown his support for his Liverpool teammate during the Reds’ 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest. Diaz was not part of the squad to face Steve Cooper’s side however Jota held aloft the the forward’s no. 7 shirt after opening the scoring at Anfield.

Goals from Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah made sure of the three points for Jurgen Klopp’s side but the Liverpool boss admitted Diaz and his family had been at the forefront of his team’s minds throughout.

“How can you make a football game really important on a day like this? It’s really difficult,” Klopp said. “I never struggled with that in my life. It was always my safe place, sometimes my hiding point as a player or as a coach. You are allowed, during these 90-odd minutes, to focus just on that.

The Colombia women’s players held up Diaz’ shirt during the national anthems (Image: B/R Football)
“And it was impossible, absolutely impossible to do that. So it was clear we had to give the game an extra sense and it was fighting for Lucho. Then the boys pulled out the shirt and I was not 100% prepared for that to be honest. It was really touching, but wonderful as well.”

There has been a global outpouring of support for Diaz over the past few days, with FIFA president Gianni Infantino insisting the whole of world football is behind the Colombian and his family. The wife of Liverpool’s principal owner John W Henry, Linda Pizzuti also offered her message of support, posting: “We are all sending love to Luis Diaz as he is with his family to help recover his kidnapped dad.”

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Dominik Szoboszlai: How we’ve started, we have to continue
REACTIONDominik Szoboszlai: How we’ve started, we have to continue
PUBLISHED 19 MINUTES AGO
By Liverpool FC
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Dominik Szoboszlai outlined his ambitions for Liverpool this season after the Reds’ 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest at Anfield.

Goals from Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah gave Jürgen Klopp’s men victory on Sunday afternoon, bringing up their eighth consecutive home success in all competitions in 2023-24.

Afterwards, Szoboszlai, whose two assists helped earn him the Carlsberg Player of the Match award, reflected on a hard-fought three points – and suggested there is more to come from the team going forward.

“Everybody tries to beat us, but we are ready for this,” the No.8 told Liverpoolfc.com. “We are ready for [the challenge of] every team. As a group, we can do a lot this season.

“How we started, we just have to continue like this. We just have to work, work, work, as much as we can, and at the end it will pay off.”

On the defeat of Forest, the midfielder added: “I think we deserved to win, we did a great game. Everybody did their job and we took the three points.”

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Salah played a key role in all three Liverpool goals on the day, including finishing off the third himself after Szoboszlai’s long pass landed his way.

Szoboszlai said of the Egyptian: “He’s always dangerous, even if it’s a penalty, a counter-attack, if he is assisting or he is scoring. He’s really important for us.”

And of the pleasure he takes from linking up with the prolific forwards within the squad, he noted: “I can only say that they are all great players, fantastic guys. Sometimes they do really good, sometimes ‘just’ good, but never bad! It’s an easy job for us.”

The Reds were without Luis Diaz for the match amid an ongoing family situation for the Colombian in his home country.

Following Jota’s opening goal of the encounter, the scorer headed to the touchline to raise a home shirt bearing Diaz’s name as a gesture of support.

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“Everyone had this in their head during the game. We did it for Lucho,” said Szoboszlai.

“To be honest, I heard [about] it in the morning and he was already gone. We had a meeting about this and everybody knew what we had to do for him.

“We are a team. We have to fight for each other. Today, we did it for Lucho.”

PUBLISHED 19 MINUTES AGO
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