Colombians urged calm last night after the two players who missed penalties against England suffered insults and threats from furious fans on social media.
Vile messages targeting Mateus Uribe and Carlos Bacca started to appear within minutes of Colombia being knocked out of the World Cup following the dramatic shoot-out.
Uribe’s penalty hit the crossbar while Bacca’s attempt was saved by hero England goalkeeper Pickford.
The posts, mostly aimed at Bacca who fans thought took the worse penalty, warned the players they were ‘dead’, urged them to kill themselves and told them not to return to the South American country.
The sinister messages were made despite a police investigation into early death threats made towards Colombian player Carlos Sanchez after he was send off three minutes into the team’s World Cup opener against Japan.
Many outraged football fans pointed out that yesterday was the 24th anniversary of the death of Andres Escobar, who was shot dead after his own goal was blamed for sending Colom- bia home at the 1994 World Cup.
One post by Twitter user David Castaneda warned: ‘Die Carlos Bacca. Son of a bitch. No-one wants you, gonorrhoea. To this country you don’t return.’
Another, Jhon Duqueismo, wrote: ‘Thank you to all the players, except to three-time son of a bitch, useless, dead, Carlos Bacca. Don’t come back here.’
HumorFPCosky wrote: ‘I hate you Carlos Bacca, I hate all of you, I hate your indifference, your animal surname, and your ass’s game. You’re worse than a cancer, at least with cancer you can go to a doctor and find out what you have.
‘Carlos Bacca, get de- pressed and kill yourself, so you don’t continue living his agony.’
Patricio wrote: ‘Uribe, you are a piece of shit, I hope you die.’
Another user, INFINITO wrote: ‘That was Mateus Uribe’s last game, that man is already dead.’
But other Colombian fans expressed their shock at the cruel messages.
Brayan Sanchez wrote: ‘Don’t wish for the death of Bacca and Uribe. Do we wish to repeat what hap- pened to Andres Escobar? Is this Colombia? Games are won and lost, we are a real country.’