Ahead of Barcelona’s crucial match against Juventus, Lionel Messi wanted to send a message to a recovering Cristiano Ronaldo.
We don’t get to hear Lionel Messi talking about his historic rivalry with Cristiano Ronaldo. The Argentine forward already spoke about the Portuguese star a couple of times before, it was right after he left Real Madrid. It’s safe to think that he sorely misses his confrontations against Cristiano during El Clasico.
Just this weekend, we are getting a new match between Barça and Madrid with no Ronaldo in it. However, Messi was happy to initially hear he was facing Cristiano just a few days after that. The ‘Old Lady’ shares Group G with the Blaugrana, Ferencvaros, and Dynamo Kyiv. After a first-round with victories for both giants, next Wednesday will bring us the first of two confrontations between the sides.
We believed Ronaldo was facing Messi again, but the Juventus star’s participation is in jeopardy due to his Covid-19 positive test. There’s still hope for Cristiano to make it in time, but Messi also wanted to motivate his rival in order to recover. We are certain that Ronaldo’s belly is filled with fire after this battle cry from Leo.
Messi cherishes the old days of the rivalry.
“Obviously when Cristiano played for Real Madrid the games were special,” Messi told DAZN ahead of El Clasico. “Matches against them always are [special], but with Cristiano on the pitch they took on a particular significance. That is now in the past and we look forward to today’s challenges.
“Wednesday there could be this challenge and we hope Cristiano can be there and will soon recover from Covid. The ones with Cristiano were and are a special duel which will remain forever. They last many years and it is not easy to maintain those levels for such a long time.
“Our teams were also very demanding: Real Madrid and Barcelona, the two strongest clubs in the world. Competing as equals for so many years is something that will remain forever. The duel between me and Cristiano was very good on a personal level and I think people enjoyed it. The fans of Real, Barca, but in general all football fans, have seen a great show. We hope to give them even more emotions [on Wednesday].”
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