{"id":296064,"date":"2023-10-13T15:41:35","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T15:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/?p=296064"},"modified":"2023-10-13T15:41:35","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T15:41:35","slug":"lionel-messi-spat-at-by-sanabria-as-argentina-ace-responds-in-typical-fashion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/soccer\/lionel-messi-spat-at-by-sanabria-as-argentina-ace-responds-in-typical-fashion\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi ‘spat at’ by Sanabria as Argentina ace responds in typical fashion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Messi's strict rule for swapping shirts — but rare exception made<\/h3>\n

Lionel Messi has attempted to play down an incident during Argentina’s 1-0 win over Paraguay after the superstar was allegedly spat at by an opponent while on international duty. Messi was the star attraction as he made an appearance in the second half in front of the crowd in Buenos Aires, but the playmaker was involved in an ugly incident in the World Cup qualifier after Paraguay’s Antonio Sanabria was accused of spitting at him.<\/p>\n

The two players exchanged words in a tense verbal exchange before Messi turned his back on the Torino striker and walked away. And TV footage appeared to catch the moment when Sanabria allegedly spat in his direction, with Argentina defender Cristian Romero seen looking at the incident while the vile act allegedly occurred.<\/p>\n

Messi was seemingly unaware of the alleged spitting saga, however, and was only informed after the game by his team-mates. The incident was not dealt with by the officials at the time either, meaning Sanabria could possibly face disciplinary action if authorities decide to take action.<\/p>\n

After the game, Sanabria denied spitting at Messi and claimed the TV camera angle was misleading. In any case, the former Barcelona and PSG star was unfazed by the run-in with Sanabria as he said he didn’t even know who ex-Roma and Real Betis striker was – and insisted he wasn’t about to give him fame by uttering his name either.<\/p>\n

READ MORE <\/strong> Argentina make Lionel Messi decision that will leave Inter Miami furious[INSIGHT] <\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cMy team-mates told me about it in the locker room. It is better to leave the issue alone,” Messi told Argentinian outlet TyC Sports after the game.<\/p>\n

He later added: \u201cI don’t know who this guy is and I don’t want to give him importance either, because if he gets that he’s going to go out and talk everywhere and he becomes known.\u201d<\/p>\n

The World Cup holders maintained their perfect start to their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign after Nicolas Otamendi’s early strike handed Lionel Scaloni’s men a hard-fought victory at Estadio Monumental. Messi had started on the bench with Julian Alvarez and Lautaro Martinez selected to spearhead the attack.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner was brought on after 53 minutes for Alvarez after recently making his comeback from injury. While the 36-year-old didn’t manage to add his name to the scoresheet, he hit the post twice and\u00a0was just pleased to get back out on the pitch after his recent lay-off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m happy to play again and add minutes,” the iconic forward added. “It is always difficult to enter [from the bench] and even more so in such a tight game. The important thing is that we won and at times we played very well, especially in the first half.\u201d<\/p>\n

Argentina boss Scaloni admits it was ‘risky’ to play Messi after his time spent on the sidelines and says he will make a decision on whether to start their all-time record goalscorer against Peru on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will talk in the next few days. He has two more training sessions to continue collecting minutes and we will see,” he said. “It is not discounted that he plays, it is not discounted that he does not play – because I haven’t talked about that yet – but today I think it was risky that he could get more minutes than usual.”<\/p>\n

Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Messi's strict rule for swapping shirts — but rare exception made Lionel Messi has attempted to play down an incident …<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nLionel Messi 'spat at' by Sanabria as Argentina ace responds in typical fashion - Sportstons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/soccer\/lionel-messi-spat-at-by-sanabria-as-argentina-ace-responds-in-typical-fashion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lionel Messi 'spat at' by Sanabria as Argentina ace responds in typical fashion - Sportstons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Messi's strict rule for swapping shirts — but rare exception made Lionel Messi has attempted to play down an incident …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/soccer\/lionel-messi-spat-at-by-sanabria-as-argentina-ace-responds-in-typical-fashion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sportstons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-13T15:41:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dennis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Lionel-Messi-spat-at-by-Sanabria-as-Argentina-ace-responds-in-typical-fashion.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dennis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/soccer\/lionel-messi-spat-at-by-sanabria-as-argentina-ace-responds-in-typical-fashion\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/soccer\/lionel-messi-spat-at-by-sanabria-as-argentina-ace-responds-in-typical-fashion\/\",\"name\":\"Lionel Messi 'spat at' by Sanabria as Argentina ace responds in typical fashion - 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