"Valverde wasn't to blame for what happened in Liverpool; we put up a pathetic show"

A lot of people were interested to know what he would say after being silent for so long. When it was announced he would appear in the press conference before the cup final against Valencia, many topics of discussion appeared on the table. And one of them was fundamental: the Anfield debacle. 

His comments on Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde were very interesting: "If I am honest with you, I didn't really see the criticism of the boss. To be honest, I think he has done a very good job. He was not to blame for the elimination against Liverpool. We are the only ones responsible for what happened. We put up a pathetic show. We knew that what happened last year couldn't happen again. It can happen to you once, but not twice in a row. It is not acceptable what happened. He will be partly to blame, but we are more so."

When asked if he had watched the game back, he said: "I haven't seen it again, but from what I saw and remember, it was very similar to what happened at Roma, in which we conceded an early goal. And when that happened, you start thinking back to what happened in Roma. However, we reacted well, and we didn't have a bad first half. But the second half was not like that. There were mistakes, a lack of concentration. The worst thing was to not compete. We were playing to get into the final and they overpowered us," admitted Leo Messi. 

Messi was also asked if these two setbacks at Barca have made him think of leaving the Camp Nou. He was clear: "I have never thought that. I have had a lot of setbacks for Argentina and I am still there. The fact I have been knocked out of the CL has not made me think about leaving Barcelona at all."

 

May 24, 2019

He had not appeared in a pre-match press conference since the 5th May 2015! It was against Bayern Munich in the Champions League. That said, in recent months he has regularly appeared in post match interviews.