Manchester United defender Chris Smalling says there is no animosity between him and Barcelona’s Lionel Messi following Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final.
Forward Messi was left with a bloodied nose after a robust Smalling challenge in the first half of United’s 1-0 loss.”We spoke afterwards. We had a brief chat and shook hands,” Smalling, 29 said.
”He knew it was an accident.”Barca had already scored the only goal of the game at the time of the challenge, with Messi – generally quiet by his standards – crossing for Luis Suarez, whose header deflected in off United defender Luke Shaw.
The return leg is at the Nou Camp on Tuesday (20:00 BST kick-off). Referring to his aerial challenge on Messi, Smalling added: “I didn’t realise at the time that I’d actually caught him like that.”
Suarez [came up to me] after the game as well. We had a good tussle and he just shook my hands afterwards and said ‘good luck’.”
It’s nice when you can have that battle on the pitch and then there’s respect after the game because, ultimately, you are just trying to do your best.”
Spanish giants Barcelona are 11 points clear at the top of La Liga and United face a huge task at the Nou Camp, but Smalling is confident Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side have the ability to produce a comeback.”
We know it can be done,” said the England centre-back.”If we can carry on from the second-half performance when we were really on the front foot, brought intensity to the game and caused them a few problems, that’s what we need to go there and do.”
We knew that we couldn’t go completely gung-ho in that second half because there is another leg.”We’ve got to make sure we go there with no regrets and leave everything there to give ourselves the best possible chance.”
In a wide-ranging interview with the Football Daily podcast, Smalling – a patron of education charity Football Beyond Borders, which supports disadvantaged young people in the UK – also discussed the impact of losing his father at the age of five, growing up with little money and abuse from fans.
Messi knew it was an accident – Smalling’I take fan abuse home with me’Smalling is a big admirer of Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling, who has spoken out about racist abuse directed at players on the pitch.
England international Sterling, 24, recently said players should not leave the pitch if they are targeted from the stands because “if you walk off they win”.Smalling said: “I agree with Raheem because it shows them up if you stay and you are strong.
Ultimately, if you have a good performance and win the game, you are standing up for yourself.”But I think the authorities need to do a lot more. Something needs to change otherwise we, as players, have to take it into our own hands.”
It’s very few people who are ruining it for the whole crowd. That’s why you think of walking off, but ultimately it’s that very few who are disrupting the whole environment.”
On dealing with abuse from opposing fans, Smalling added: “Sometimes you just take it home with you.”It’s not a nice feeling when you’ve had that. You can’t really release it because you know you are in the public eye and it’s not really the right way to go about things.”