The Barcelona superstar sat out a meeting with Italy and a 6-1 defeat to Spain during the international break with a hamstring complaint.<\/p>\n
Lionel Messi may be nursing a niggling hamstring problem, but Argentina legend Hugo Gatti claims Cristiano Ronaldo would have played through the pain.<\/p>\n
Barcelona\u2019s superstar forward sat out both of his nation\u2019s fixtures during the international break, playing no part in a 2-0 victory over Italy or a 6-1 defeat to Spain.<\/p>\n
Jorge Sampaoli admitted that his side had been \u201cslapped\u201d during a forgettable night in Madrid , with Messi forced to watch on from the stands at Wanda Metropolitano before leaving the contest early.<\/p>\n
Former Argentina goalkeeper Gatti believes the five-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner should have made himself available, regardless of his muscular concerns , as eternal rival Ronaldo would never have cried off duty with a slight knock.<\/p>\n
The man nicknamed \u2018El Loco\u2019 during his playing days told El Chiringuito TV while reflecting on a demoralising demolition at the hands of Spain: \u201cMessi had to have played.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople wanted to see you.<\/p>\n
\u201cCristiano would have done it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boca Juniors icon Gatti, who earned 18 caps for Argentina and made their squad for the 1966 World Cup, also believes that too much emphasis is being placed on Messi\u2019s role for Albiceleste.<\/p>\n
While conceding that he should have played during two important warm-up fixtures over the course of the last week, he has urged Sampaoli not to revolve everything around a star turn.<\/p>\n
Gatti added: \u201cI do not think Messi is the one who makes the team, I do not believe in those things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Argentina will, however, be leaning heavily on their talismanic skipper when they head to Russia this summer.<\/p>\n
Any hope they have of tasting global glory is likely to rest on Messi\u2019s ability to lead from the front and provide inspiration for a nation starved of international honours in the modern era.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Barcelona superstar sat out a meeting with Italy and a 6-1 defeat to Spain during the international break with a hamstring complaint. Lionel Messi may be nursing a niggling hamstring problem, but Argentina legend Hugo Gatti claims Cristiano Ronaldo would have played through the pain. Barcelona’s superstar forward sat out both of his nation’s fixtures during the international break, playing no part in a 2-0 victory over Italy or a 6-1 defeat to Spain. Jorge Sampaoli admitted that his side had been “slapped” during a forgettable night in Madrid<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":15473,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15472"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15474,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15472\/revisions\/15474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}