The bomb allegedly went off when the bus arrived at its own stadium in Salvador. Bahia would play a regional cup match against Sampaio Correa there.
Goalkeeper Danilo Fernandes had to be taken to hospital with ‘face injuries’, while left-back Matheus Bahia and Marcelo Cirino were also injured. Despite the incident, the cup was still played and won 2-0.
shard in face
“The club can confirm that a bomb exploded inside the bus, upon arrival at Fonte Nova. Our players have been injured. Our main concern is that our goalkeeper has been hit by a shard in his face,” the club later tweeted.
Not much later, the club tweeted that the closing entry is ‘going well’, but that he will still have to stay overnight in hospital after ‘multiple injuries to the face, neck and other limbs’.
Bahia boss Guto Ferreira praised the dignity and professionalism of the players for the courage to just want to play the cup match.
Support from other clubs
Other Brazilian clubs support the stricken Bahia. For example, Internacional wrote: “We stand with you. We want to express our outrage at another violent attack in Brazilian football.”
Botafogo calls it ‘unacceptable’. “A criminal act that should be seriously investigated. We stand behind Bahia’s colleagues.”