Real Madrid legend slams Messi for Champions League insult
FT Desk
- 28 Sept 2022 19:00 BST
- 3 min read
Real Madrid legend Guti has hit back after the club’s 2022 Champions League victory was disparaged by Lionel Messi.
Messi hit the headlines earlier this week when he implied that Real Madrid were not the best team in the competition when they won the Champions League last season.
Related articles
What did Messi say?
"The Champions League is a very difficult competition to win because it's not always won by the best team,” Messi told TUDN.
“It's always decided by small details, any mistake leaves you out of a tie, but we're preparing ourselves for when those hard moments come, to be up to the task."
Lionel Messi at PSG: Goals, assists, results & fixtures in 2022-23
This prompted an angry response from Guti, a classy midfielder who played 542 times for Real Madrid between 1995 and 2010 and won five La Liga titles and three Champions Leagues.
What did Guti say?
“What is it to be the best? How do you evaluate being the best? When? In one match, in one knockout round, in three knockout rounds…?,” blasted Guti on El Chiringuito.
Real Madrid knocked out PSG in the last-16 of the Champions League last season as part of a miraculous run to the final.
In all three-two-legged knockout ties, against PSG, Chelsea in the quarter-finals and Man City in the semi-finals, Madrid had seemed down and out.
Guti (Spain) 1995-2010 pic.twitter.com/TcvhPdrTXa
— Real Madrid players (@madrid_players) September 27, 2022
However, they launched stunning late comebacks in all three ties to make it through. In the semis itself, they scored twice in injury time in the second leg to force extra time before finishing City off in extra time.
They then beat Liverpool 1-0 in the final, despite being dominated for much of the game.
Madrid have enjoyed a brilliant start to the 2022-23 season, winning all nine of their games in all competitions.
