Messi and Inter Miami score against Monterrey: the audio that warmed up the preview of the duel for Concachampions

He InterMiami From Lionel Messi the passage to the semi-finals of the Concacampioni in a match against Rayados of Monterrey which will be marked by the heat that surrounded the first leg at Chase Stadium and which lasted throughout the last week.

It all started with some statements from Fernando “Tano” Ortiz, coach of the Mexican team, who did not like the Argentine star. “The referees, the structure, the people and everything that surrounds Messi can lead to sporting and non-sporting decisions. I don’t know if it hurts, but that’s not how business is. Business is not going like Monterrey and we all know it,” the DT had said.

Leo got angry and exploded at the end of the match. He came on the bench due to the same muscle injury that excluded him from the friendlies with the Argentine national team, but once it was over he went down to the changing rooms and a scandal broke out. According to reports from Mexico, he, along with Tata Martino, Luis Suárez and Jordi Alba, confronted Guatemalan referee Walter López and vehemently reprimanded him for the expulsion, which they considered unfair, of David Ruiz.

But that wasn’t all. “From there they went to the Monterrey dressing room to want to face Tano Ortiz. Messi also faced Nico Sánchez (field assistant). “It’s not sensationalism, it’s pure information,” reported journalist Fernando Schwartz for Fox Sports México.

He wasn’t going to stop there. The next day, an audio of Sánchez, former central defender of Nueva Chicago, River and Racing, went viral in which he revealed what really happened. “Yes, Messi wanted to face me. I don’t think he wanted to hit me because otherwise he would have hit me. She held me an inch away, she put my fist close to her face. I think he was looking for my reaction more than hitting me,” began the former footballer promoted to the first division with Nueva Chicago in the 2005-2006 season.

“I always watch the matches in the cabin with two teammates. When it was over, we went down to the locker room and I saw him (Messi) three meters away from me. I approached him to ask him for a photo and for security. He stopped me with a good attitude, I given that Messi “it was very hot and the referees arrived. There he confronted them and told them everything. Next to him was Tata Martino, both very out of place”, he continued.

“I look at the CONCACAF people who were there and I tell them, ‘If we do this, they’ll throw us all out.’ Martino, who was entering the locker room, turned and began to tell me everything. Messi appeared and wanted to eat me raw. I didn’t even look at him, but the dwarf was possessed. He had the face of the devil. And he put his fist next to me. “Who do you think you are, salami?” «Who did you eat?», he said to me. I looked the other way and never answered him,” he added.

Nanny Martino? A poor idiot. “Are you going to cry that much?”, he told me. An idiot. They probably deleted all the videos because they are very serious and leave them in a very bad light. What they did is part of the show. They want to dirty and muddy the pitch. There were no clashes or fights, it was pure discussion and pressure. They were looking for us to send us some witnesses and that’s why no video or anything will come out,” she concluded.

The next chapter of this story is that of Nico Sánchez who apologizes through a message on his social networks.

“I made the audio. The audio in which I explain in detail what happened in the mixed zone after the end of Wednesday’s game. It’s an audio that I sent to my inner circle, my closest circle, to my private environment. It’s my mistake, but it will serve as a lesson for me later,” he begins his defense, despite admitting in the audio that “this audio will definitely be forwarded to many groups and people who ask me the same thing. “

“I understand that when this audio is made public, many people may feel offended or moved. I understand that the coach of Inter Miami, Gerardo Martino, is a person I do not know and to whom I have referred in a disrespectful way, so I apologize : “I hope you can understand me. I am Argentine like everyone else and I will always defend my club,” added Sánchez without ever referring to Messi.

The waters seemed to have calmed down, but Tano Ortíz spoke in a press conference before the match that will be played tonight at 11.30pm in Argentina and was defiant: “We are Monterrey and we are at home. Let Messi worry about us.”.

He also praised the Argentine champion, calling him an “indecipherable” player and tried to put an end to the controversy (“these are things that remain there”, he said), but the seed of a hot clash is already germinating.

The statistics are not favorable for Inter Miami, who are in their second foray into an international tournament after winning the Leagues Cup champion title last August as soon as Messi arrived in the United States.

That match was played entirely on Yankee soil, the story is different when it comes to home and away duels. As of Tuesday evening, 21 MLS teams that had drawn or lost at home attempted unsuccessfully to overturn the result on Aztec soil. Last night the Columbus Crew were the first to do so: they drew 1-1 against Tigres in the first leg and repeated the score in Nuevo León, winning on penalties.