{"id":292100,"date":"2023-10-13T09:38:54","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T09:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=292100"},"modified":"2023-10-13T09:38:54","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T09:38:54","slug":"lionel-messi-issues-brutal-put-down-after-spitting-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/lionel-messi-issues-brutal-put-down-after-spitting-incident\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi issues brutal put-down after &apos;spitting&apos; incident"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Lionel Messi issues brutal put-down to Paraguay player alleged to have SPAT at him during Argentina&#8217;s World Cup qualifier<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Cameras caught Antonio Sanabria spitting in Messi&#8217;s direction after argument<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Messi claimed &#8216;I don&#8217;t know who this guy is&#8217; despite Barcelona connection<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport&#8217;s podcast &#8216;It&#8217;s All Kicking Off!&#8217;\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Lionel Messi had a brutal putdown for an opponent who allegedly spat at him during Argentina&#8217;s World Cup qualifier against Paraguay.<\/p>\n<p>Replays showed Antonio Sanabria &#8211; like Messi, a Barcelona youth product &#8211; spitting in the star&#8217;s direction after an exchange of words during Thursday night&#8217;s match in Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n<p>Messi wasn&#8217;t facing in Sanabria&#8217;s direction at the time and said he only found out post-match what had happened, delivering a brutal response to the Paraguay and Torino forward.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The truth is that I didn&#8217;t see it. They told me in the locker room that one of them had spit on me,&#8217; Messi said, as per Marca.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The truth is, I don&#8217;t even know who this guy is. I didn&#8217;t see him. They only told me.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/13\/08\/76509299-12626675-image-a-70_1697182651251.jpg\" height=\"742\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Paraguay&#8217;s Antonio Sanabria was alleged to have spat at Argentina star Lionel Messi during Thursday night&#8217;s World Cup qualifier in Buenos Aires<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/13\/09\/76508845-12626675-Messi_said_after_the_match_he_didn_t_see_the_spitting_incident_a-a-11_1697185825993.jpg\" height=\"724\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Messi said after the match he didn&#8217;t see the spitting incident and asked who Sanabria was<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtube.com\/watch?v=myd46dAzOzo%3Frel%3D0<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I don&#8217;t want to give important either because he&#8217;s going to come out, talk everywhere and it&#8217;s worse.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It&#8217;s going to become known, so it&#8217;s better to leave it there.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Sanabria sought to downplay the spitting incident in his post-match interview.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I was looking at the image. It seems like I spit it out but, no, there&#8217;s nothing to see. It was far away,&#8217; he told TyC Sports.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Nothing happened with Messi. It seems like I spit out, but there&#8217;s nothing to see, it was far way and I totally deny it.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Sanabria, 27, was in Barcelona&#8217;s youth sides when Messi, 36, was a star for the club between 2009 and 2014.<\/p>\n<p>The Paraguayan forward didn&#8217;t make a first-team appearance for Barcelona before he signed for Roma in 2014, initially spending time with Sassuolo.<\/p>\n<p>He later returned to Spain with Real Betis and has been with Torino since 2021, scoring 12 times last season.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/13\/09\/76509141-12626675-Sanabria_second_left_with_Leandro_Paredes_post_match_as_Messi_se-a-12_1697185825996.jpg\" height=\"427\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Sanabria (second left) with Leandro Paredes post-match, as Messi (second right) talks to Ramon Sosa after Argentina beat Paraguay 1-0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/13\/09\/76509585-12626675-Messi_came_off_the_bench_in_the_second_half_to_help_Argentina_wi-a-13_1697185825997.jpg\" height=\"420\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Messi came off the bench in the second-half to help Argentina win the World Cup qualifier 1-0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/13\/09\/76507777-12626675-Nicolas_Otamendi_scored_the_decisive_goal_in_Buenos_Aires_as_Arg-a-14_1697185825998.jpg\" height=\"425\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Nicolas Otamendi scored the decisive goal in Buenos Aires as Argentina top the group<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/13\/09\/76509621-12626675-Sanabria_was_in_Barcelona_s_academy_when_Messi_played_there_and_-a-15_1697185826000.jpg\" height=\"425\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Sanabria was in Barcelona&#8217;s academy when Messi played there and is now with Torino<\/p>\n<p>Argentina won Thursday night&#8217;s match 1-0 to continue their perfect start to qualification for the 2026 World Cup in North America with three wins from three.<\/p>\n<p>Nicolas Otamendi&#8217;s early goal proved decisive with Messi only coming on for Julian Alvarez in the 53rd minute.<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2017\/08\/02\/636x90_facebook_ad_sport.png\" width=\"636\" height=\"90\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12626675\/Lionel-Messi-issues-brutal-Paraguay-player-alleged-SPAT-Argentinas-World-Cup-qualifier.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Lionel Messi issues brutal put-down to Paraguay player alleged to have SPAT at him during Argentina&#8217;s World Cup qualifier Cameras caught Antonio Sanabria spitting in <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/lionel-messi-issues-brutal-put-down-after-spitting-incident\/\" title=\"Lionel Messi issues brutal put-down after &amp;apos;spitting&amp;apos; incident\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292099,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-292100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lionel Messi issues brutal put-down after &amp;apos;spitting&amp;apos; incident - Sportstoft<\/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:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/lionel-messi-issues-brutal-put-down-after-spitting-incident\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lionel Messi issues brutal put-down after &amp;apos;spitting&amp;apos; 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