Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa have found themselves centre of a controversial fall-out between a set of Spanish international players.
Despite Spain being the reigning World champions, they were eliminated by Chile in the group stages on Wednesday night and a diagnosis of their lacklustre performances following the exit by former Liverpool man Xabi Alonso has not gone down very well with his fellow international team-mates.
Alonso made comments following the 2-0 defeat to Chile that he and his team-mates were not in the right frame of mind and had not fully prepared for the tournament.
The likes of Andres Iniesta, Diego Costa and others are now unhappy with Alonso for making such comments and not making it clear he was talking about himself, rather than the whole group.
Barcelona’s Iniesta even went public with his upset and contradicted the Real Madrid midfielder, who is seemingly set to retire from international football any time soon.
However, former Spain and Liverpool full-back Alvaro Arbeloa has backed his friend, tweeting: “My respect and admiration for those who prefer telling the truth and causing discomfort rather than admiration by telling lies.”