The third day of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup has not only left Scaloni's victory against Paraguay at the Monumental, thanks to a solitary goal from Otamendi. In Argentina-Paraguay this morning, Messi was also involved in a controversy in the middle of the game with the Paraguayan striker, Antonio Sanabria. The Torino player tried to spit at the Inter Miami player, in the 85th minute of the match, after a previous scuffle between both players.
“The truth is that I didn't see it. They told me in the locker room that one of them had spit on me, but I don't know who he is. I honestly don't know who this guy is... I didn't see him. But I don't want to give it importance either because otherwise now he's going to go out and talk everywhere and it's worse. He is going to make himself known… Better to leave it there,” Leo Messi commented on the action in question, at the end of the match.
The Argentine star was a substitute against Daniel Garnero's team - he came on in the 53rd minute for Julián Álvarez - and sent two balls to the post. The first of them from the corner, a position in which he almost scored his first Olympic goal; the second came in the 90th minute with a free kick.
In the case of Sarabia, he later noted that the issue in question is “party stuff”: “It's far away. In the image it seems that I spit it out, but nothing to see,” he stated.
