Uruguay's coach, Marcelo Bielsa, stated this Friday that Luis Suárez's criticisms against him have "in some way affected" his authority, but he guaranteed that the preparation for the match they lost 1-0 to Peru this Friday was done "with the utmost seriousness."

In the press conference following his team's defeat on matchday nine of the South American qualifiers, Bielsa said that the response he got from the players ahead of the match "was the same" as always.

He highlighted the team's "generous commitment" in a match that, in his opinion, should have ended in a draw.

"The team's commitment was very generous, regardless of how we played. I believe that what happened during the week neither influenced nor explains it. I don't link it to how we played, and I don't think the fact that it was a week with a lot of tension had any effect," Bielsa said in the post-match press conference.

In this way, he referred to the controversy that arose after Suárez said in an interview on DSports' program De Fútbol Se Habla Así that Bielsa had treated some of the players poorly.

In that interview, Suárez mentioned that some players had asked the Argentine coach "to at least say 'good morning' to them," and he suggested that it wouldn't be surprising if more players decided to quit playing for Uruguay. He also claimed that some staff members linked to the national team couldn't enjoy their work.

Suárez added that, before the Copa América, he spoke with Bielsa for about five or six minutes on certain topics, to which the coach simply responded: "Thank you very much, Luis."