Lionel Messi was back on the ground after an injury during the Argentina vs Paraguay match. Argentina won by a 1-0 margin extending their winning streak to 13 games since the World Cup. However, the focus of the match became an altercation between Messi and Paraguayan forward Antonio Sanabria. The Paraguayan allegedly spat towards Messi’s direction who did not see it at the time. However, upon knowing, when asked about it, Messi responded clearly that he didn’t want to give it any importance.
Lionel Messi was injured during Argentina’s matches last month. He missed their 2nd match of September against Bolivia due to that injury. Messi came back to the United States, but he missed several matches for Inter Miami as well. He only featured in Miami’s 2 matches, but he came off the bench both times. He appeared in Miami’s last match against FC Cincinnati. Then he came on as a substitute during the Argentina vs Paraguay match yesterday. Argentina won the match by a 1-0 margin from a Nicolas Otamendi goal.
This win extended their 100% winning run to a whopping 13 games. However, that win was not the main focus of the game. Apparently, Messi had an altercation with the Paraguayan player Antonio Sanabria. Allegedly, Sanabria spat out towards Messi which the Argentine was unaware of. When Messi was also about it after the match, he said, “The truth is that I didn’t see it. They told me in the locker room that one of them had spit on me. The truth is, I don’t even know who this guy is.”
He added, “I didn’t see him. They only told me. I don’t want to give importance either because he’s going to come out, talk everywhere and it’s worse. It’s going to become known, so it’s better to leave it there.” Antonio Sanabria was asked about the matter as well, but he denied both the altercation and spitting incident involving Lionel Messi. He said, “Nothing happened with Messi. It seems like I spit out, but there’s nothing to see, it was far way and I totally deny it.”
Antonio Sanabria, who is a 27-year-old striker, plays for Torino in Italy’s top-flight competition, Serie A. Even if there was an altercation, that cannot justify his actions if he spat on the Argentine captain. However, Sanabria has denied that no such incident happened multiple times. Apparently, many people are threatening his family along with him over this matter. Sanabria took to Instagram to post a story as a request to these people to stop and pay heed to his side of the incident as well.
In the particular story, Sanabria requested the haters who sent threatening messages by writing, “I feel obliged to go out and deny what happened last night. For the simple fact of seeing my family affected and due to multiple threats for an event that never happened. I would never do anything similar to any colleague or any person out of respect. What example would I be giving to my daughters by committing an act like that? I recommend that you see all the images.”