Man United: Solskjaer is ‘looking forward’ to Barcelona clash
Manchester United will play Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals after being drawn against the Catalans last week.
The draw follows a dramatic last-16 encounter against Paris Saint-Germain which United won in injury time - a game in which Smalling performed exceptionally well to silence Kylian Mbappe.
The Englishman was understandably buoyed coming out of the tie, and a few days after the Red Devils pulled Barcelona out the hat a quote from the defender began to circulate online.
“There is a weakness in Messi that only I know about,” Smalling allegedly said.
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There is now no sign of Chris Smalling's tweet denying the Lionel Messi quote (Image: Twitter)
Some fans pointed out that the fictional words were based on an actual line from Ryan Babel’s Times interview ahead of Fulham’s game against Liverpool last Sunday.
Asked whether countryman Virgil van Dijk has a weakness, Babel replied: “He does.
“I don’t want to say what it is. I don’t think anyone has made it aware yet.”
Chris Smalling reacted to the reports on Instagram (Image: INSTAGRAM)
Chris Smalling hits out at the claims (Image: INSTAGRAM)
Chris Smalling posted an image of himself laughing (Image: INSTAGRAM)
Babel did score in the match, but the Cottagers ended up losing 2-1.
One day after his deleted tweet, Smalling took to Instagram to spread the truth.
The defender's entourage created a short video on his Instagram story which showed a number of the tweets "quoting" him, followed by a video of Smalling laughing hysterically before urging viewers to read the original article, where Babel's original statement was made.