Mauro Icardi, from the black eye in the Turkish classic to Wanda Nara’s tutorial to cover it with makeup

On Christmas Eve, Mauro Icardi appeared on social media with an image of his visibly beaten face and this worried everyone. The Galatasaray striker showed off with an amazing performance dent in one of his eyes without revealing what had happened, but as the hours passed the situation became clearer. Now, Wanda Nara uploaded a video in which she explains a good solution to her partner’s problem.

What happened? Icardi started the most important match of the Turkish Super League last Sunday: Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, a classic rivalry, with both teams leading the championship. A spicy duel was expected and so it was, ending with Mauro beaten…

How did such a bruise occur? In one play, the former Inter player went to look for a cross, exaggerated his jump and, between friction and calculation errors, he ended up crashing into one of the rival goal posts. Hit. His eye was black, as seen in the Christmas Eve photos he had shared with Wanda.

A few days later, the Argentine businesswoman posted a video on her TikTok account showing how she helped Mauro overcome a similar blow at his home. What did he do? I completely make this up. As Nara explained, they both had a production this Wednesday and “there’s nothing to do with it.”

In the action of Icardi’s shot, logically, referee Arda Kardesler did not award a penalty nor did he resort to technology to review the action, which prompted Galatasaray to issue a statement of protest: “Those who want justice only for themselves have continued to manipulate Turkish football on all channels tonight.”

“The VAR room and the 26 cameras could not see (the penalty) and we are ashamed for them. Those who brought Turkish football to this point will be ashamed,” demanded the Turkish club.

Fenerbahce responded to that message and accused its biggest rival of doing so “trying to create victimization through the player hitting the goal post. We leave that to the discretion of the public.”.

The defeat was not convenient for either team, as they would lose ground to the other in the title fight. This has led to both Fenerbahce and Galatasaray becoming super conservative, despite being the two teams with the most goals in the league: 44 and 32, respectively. Ergo, the protagonists of the evening were the kicks and not the emotions: 45 fouls in total, seven yellow cards and only one shot on target (weak and centered).

For Icardi it was absolutely not his best match. The way the match was played conspired against Rosario’s chances. He touched just 15 balls: he made five passes out of the eight attempted (63% effectiveness) and finished off target once. The third Argentine scorer in 2023 (37), behind Germán Cano (40) and Lautaro Martínez (38), will only have the Turkish Super Cup against him in 2023. Fenerbahce displaces Toro.