"You're worse than a cancer, at least with cancer you can go to a doctor and find out what you have. Carlos Bacca, get depressed and kill yourself, so you don't continue living this agony."

And on the other side of the spectrum, proud Colombian fans were shocked at the messages.

Credit: Twitter

One fan said: "Don't wish for the death of Bacca and Uribe. Do we wish to repeat what happened to Andres Escobar? Is this Colombia? Games are won and lost, we are a real country."

Another added: "Now they start to insult and threaten Uribe and Bacca. Yesterday was the 24th anniversary of the death of Andres Escobar, please, please! Let's learn how to lose aswell."

Andres Escobar, 27, was shot dead 10 days after his mistake against the US knocked Colombia out of the World Cup hosted in the USA.

And hours before the showdown with England in Moscow yesterday Escobar's brother, Sachi, told of his fears that another player could be killed if Colombia failed to get through to the quarter-finals, warning that the country 'had not learned the lessons' of the tragedy.

He said: "I want to send an important message to those people who think things can be resolved with violence, and with weapons, that they can take someone's life just because they make a mistake, in this case the life of a football player.

"Football should be a vehicle of peace and social transformation, and at the end of the day, it is just a game."

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