Barcelona has defended Dani Alves for his response to a racist taunt and teammate Neymar posted a photo of himself with a peeled banana on the internet in support.

Alves, who is black, was about to take a corner in Sunday's 3-2 win at Villarreal when a banana was thrown at him. The Brazil international picked it up, peeled it and ate some of it before throwing the rest aside. Barcelona said it "wishes to express its complete support and solidarity with our first team player Dani Alves."

Alves said that humor is the best way to combat racism in sports.

"We have suffered this in Spain for some time. You have to take it with a dose of humor. We aren't going to change things easily. If you don't give it importance, they don't achieve their objective," he said.

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