An international women's soccer match had to be brought to a standstill after a dog invaded the ground. A video of the incident has gone viral. It shows the dog running around on the ground and demanding pats and belly rubs from the players.
The funny incident took place during a women's match between Chile and Venezuela on June 26 at La Granja stadium in Curico.
The 51-second video shows Chilean goalkeeper Christiane Endler giving pats and belly rubs to the black Labrador, which that moved towards the referee.
The dog then ran the length of the pitch and refused to be removed, as seen in the video. The players tried to lure it out of the ground, but it refused and kept running around.
The video later showed Chilean players taking a break and speaking to the coach. The dog was finally removed by two players and a ball boy.
The soccer match was friendly ahead of the Copa America, which will begin on July 8. Venezuela went on to win the game 1-0 thanks to Mariana Speckmaier's strike eight minutes from time.
Many similar incidents have been reported in the past few months. In February, a game between Sheffield Wednesday and Wigan Athletic in the third-tier English League One was disrupted when a cat invaded the field of play.
The game had to be paused as the cat refused to leave the pitch. Wigan's Scottish footballer Jason Kerr attempted to coax the cat into leaving the pitch and finally managed to do so after multiple attempts.
Kerr tickled and picked up the cat before escorting the latter off the pitch. Kerr's reaction earned praise from fans.