With the presence of
Lionel Messi
from one of the boxes,
Inter Miami
suffered the absence of its star and fell 2-1 against
Rayados de Monterrey
in the first leg of the round of 16 of the
Concachampions
. Although the star could not be on the field as he was still recovering from his small hamstring injury, according to reports from Mexico, he decided to appear in the locker room area. Although not to encourage his teammates: according to what they say, Leo became very angry and approached to confront
Fernando
Tano
Ortiz
, the Argentine who coaches the Mexican team, because of the comments he had made before the match.
"The referees, the framework, the people, everything that surrounds Messi can lead to making sporting and non-sporting decisions. I don't know if it's harmful, but the business is not that way.
The business is not going the way of Monterrey and we know it "Everyone
. We all know that football is business.
I'm going to beat him sportingly, then there are things that I can't handle
," Ortiz, a former Argentine defender who played for Boca, Estudiantes and San Lorenzo, had said the day before the match against Inter. Miami.
Beyond the speculation until the last minute,
Gerardo Martino
decided not to risk Leo's physical condition and took the field with Julian Gressel as his replacement. And despite having gone ahead on the scoreboard through former Racing
Tomás Avilés
, Monterrey would turn it around at the end with goals from Argentinians
Maximiliano Meza
and
Jorge Corcho Rodríguez
.
After the game, from Mexico they hinted that Ortiz's words would have reached the ears of Leo, who would not have liked the situation at all. So much so that they reported on an alleged clash between Messi and the coach in the locker room. "
Tempers got hot in the locker room
.
After the match, Tata Martino, Lionel Messi, Jordi Alba and later Luis Suárez went to complain to the Guatemalan referee Walter López," journalist Fernando Schwartz reported for Fox Sports México.
And he added: "But that wasn't the worst.
From there they went to the Monterrey locker room to want to confront Tano Ortiz. Messi also confronted Nico Sánchez
(field assistant)
.
It's not sensationalism, this is pure information."
THERE WERE CLAIMS AND THEY WANTED TO FACE THE TANO! 🤯@fersch_4 reveals that Martino, Alba, Messi and Suárez went to complain to the referee and even wanted to confront Tano Ortíz.
Everything ended very hot and @chaco_81 analyzes what happened! pic.twitter.com/6X0qnyQGpw
— FOX Sports MX (@FOXSportsMX) April 4, 2024
The tension at the time would have been at a high level, as the information revealed: "
Now let's wait for what the commissioners are going to report to Concacaf, because the Monterrey board told him 'look at everything that happened
.'"
Even Fernando Ortiz himself did not deny the situation. "
I'm going to say the phrase from Las Vegas, ha. What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas
," he answered when asked by TN.
Despite the suspense and the supposed scandal,
Christian
Chaco
Giménez
himself , present at the Fox broadcast, tried to calm down the situation:
"These things happen a lot outside the locker room. It didn't go any further, it's going to stay there
."
Messi aims to recover from his injury and be on the field for the return leg. Photo: Getty Images via AFP.
"It's game by game and we understand that he was not ready, putting him in was too big a risk," Martino clarified after the game about Messi's absence.
The return of the series between Inter Miami and Monterrey will take place on April 10 in Mexico, starting at 11:30 p.m. in Argentina. Possibly the efforts of Leo and company are aimed at seeing their number '10' on the court again to try to turn the overall score around and advance to the quarterfinals.
The man from Rosario carries the history of the alleged clash, added to chants that the Monterrey fans made against him as a mockery for not being able to play in the first leg. It is not going to be that in the return he relives his performance against the Netherlands and Louis Van Gaal in the World Cup in Qatar.