Before a ball was even kicked, one moment during the players' traditional handshake line defined Sunday's Brazilian Serie A fixture between Vasco da Gama and Santos: Thiago Mendes snubbing Neymar at São Januário.
The feud between the two dates to 2020 during a Ligue 1 match between Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon. On that occasion, Neymar was on the receiving end of a hard challenge from Thiago, who was sent off as a result.
After the match, the midfielder took to social media to apologize to his fellow Brazilian, hoping that the then-PSG player had not been injured. Neymar ultimately suffered a sprain to his left ankle.
The former PSG forward did not make any public comments mentioning Thiago and expressed relief that he had not suffered a more serious injury. Neymar's father took to social media to voice his displeasure.
"A player makes an irresponsible, violent scissor tackle from the side, going straight through another player's space, leaving him with no chance to defend himself," Neymar's father posted. "We don't measure this over the course of the whole match, when Neymar was subjected to the usual rotation of fouls, always violent ones, and in doing so we keep encouraging this type of player and this kind of behavior. That's really how football will lose out. Until when will the victim be the one blamed?"
This February, Thiago and Neymar faced each other again in Brazilian football, and there was another falling out.
Santos' No. 10 did not like a foul committed against him and confronted the Vasco midfielder in the first half. Shortly afterward, the two began arguing on the pitch, until Neymar fell to the ground after Thiago touched his face.
Both were shown yellow cards for the on-field altercation and kept arguing throughout the match. At halftime, Neymar brought up the tackle from six years ago.
"He always wants to start trouble, he always wants to act tough, it's always like that," Neymar said in an interview with SporTV. "With all due respect, he's an idiot. He already hurt me once at PSG, he threatened me today, so let's see if he's man enough to hurt me again."