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Lionel Messi: Barcelona star makes shock claim about Champions League defeat to Liverpool
LIONEL MESSI has revealed Barcelona’s Champions League capitulation to Liverpool earlier this month hurt him more than losing the World Cup final.
Liverpool eliminated Barcelona in the semi-finals of the tournament in one of the most memorable ties in European Cup history.
Barcelona won the first leg 3-0 and looked certain to reach their first Champions League final since June 2015.
Liverpool, however, had different plans and ran out 4-0 winners to send the Spanish champions crashing out of the competition.
Barca’s collapse was the biggest in Champions League history and will live long in the memory.
And for Lionel Messi, the pain of that night at Anfield is greater than when Argentina lost the 2010 World Cup final in South Africa to Germany.
“Obviously losing a World Cup final, which is the most important game of all, is a big disappointment," the Argentine said. "But it another thing altogether to have a result 3-0 in your favour and then have it turned over.
“Both games were very big shocks – but losing to Liverpool hurt more because we just did not expect it.”
Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde received a huge amount of criticism in the aftermath of the humiliating defeat, which raised serious questions were raised over his future at the club.
Losing to Liverpool hurt more because we just did not expect it
Messi is adamant the Spaniard isn't to blame for Barca’s Anfield nightmare and wants him to keep his job.
He said: “I would like Valverde to continue next year, we won a double last year and we can repeat that this year.
“If I am honest with you, I didn’t really see the criticism of the manager. ‘To be honest, I think he has done a very good job. He was not to blame for the elimination against Liverpool.
"We are the only ones responsible for what happened.
“We knew that what happened last year couldn’t happen again. It can happen to you once, but not twice in a row. It is not acceptable what happened. He will be partly to blame, but we are more so.
“I have not reviewed the game, but from what I remember, it was very similar to the Roma game, they quickly scored a goal, we lowered our heads thinking that it could happen again.
“Although we reacted well, because the first half was not bad at all, in the second half we did not compete, there was only one team on the pitch, that was the biggest mistake, that we did not compete, we let ourselves down.
“What we cannot forgive is that we did not compete at Anfield. They passed us up. The disappointment was very big. We must apologise for not competing to be in the final.”