Did Sanabria spit at Messi in Argentina vs Paraguay? What did Messi say?

Argentina overcame Paraguay in their CONMEBOL World Cup qualifiers with an early goal from centre-back Nicolás Otamendi settling things for La Albiceleste. During the game, Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi returned to action in the blue and white shirt after a week of heavy speculation regarding the fitness of the forward.

Towards the end of the match, cameras captured Paraguay forward Antonio Sanabria as he appeared to spit in the direction of the World Cup 2022 winner, and the footage has since caused a huge stir in the press and online.

‘I don’t even know who the guy is’

Messi himself was questioned about the incident to which he played down any rumours of a spat between the two, saying “my teammates told me in the dressing room that he had spat on me. I honestly don’t even know who the guy is. I didn’t see it. I don’t want to give it any importance, because it will be everywhere now. What’s worse is that he becomes known [for it]. It’s better to leave it as it is.”

The player in question, Sanabria, was questioned after the game and he flatly denied spitting at his opponent: “No [there was no incident], just things that happen in a game”. When shown the images, Sanabria admits that it may look like he does spit at Messi but “he was far away, it just looks like that in the picture”, according to the forward. “Because it’s from behind”, he continued, “it looks like I spit at him, but it’s not like that at all.”

Messi ’happy to be back’ after injury

Away from the controversy, Messi said that he felt “happy to come back and get some minutes” after a long spell out with a mystery injury. “It’s always tough coming on and even more so in a hard game. The important thing was to win and we played well at times, especially in the first half. There were a lot of chances and they only had one.”

The former Barcelona player heaped praise on Lionel Scaloni and his team, saying that “the technical staff have had a big part in the fact that we continue our great run after becoming world champions, as well as the mentality of the group.”

Argentina take on Peru in their next fixture on Tuesday 17 October 2023, with kick-off at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. As for Messi’s club side, Inter Miami, their next game is against Charlotte on Wednesday, October 18, 2023 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.