Lionel Messi once confused Scott McTominay for Chris Smalling after the latter had left him bloodied during a UEFA Champions League clash between Manchester United and Barcelona in the 2018/19 season.
While appearing on a segment for ESPN recently, Scott McTominay revealed a cute little story from the first leg of the quarter-final clash between the two sides at Old Trafford.
As the host of the show, Alexis Nunes turned to ask who was the Man Utd midfielder’s favourite player, McTominay was adamant it was Messi and then went on to reveal how he almost didn’t get the Barcelona legend’s shirt following the full-time whistle.
Barcelona went on to win the game 1-0 as a Luke Shaw own goal decided the first leg in Manchester. Lionel Messi being the most important opposition player was marked closely by the United players.
Center-back Chris Smalling perhaps went a little too close to comfort during a moment in the game and elbowed Messi on the face.
“So, whenever we played against him for Barcelona [2019], Chris Smalling elbowed him and he’s got blood coming out of his nose. And he thought it was me,” McTominay told ESPN.
“Because I said to Sergio Romero, ‘please can you ask Messi to get his shirt?’.
“Sergio comes back in and said, ‘Oh, he thinks you were the one who elbowed him on the halfway line’. I said, ‘No, no, no, no – tell him it wasn’t me, so make sure I get that shirt because that’s going in my bedroom.”
Safe to say, this is about as interesting a story involving Lionel Messi, Scott McTominay, Chris Smalling and Sergio Romero as we’re likely to get, check out the bit from ESPN below –
Scott McTominay needed an assist from Sergio Romero to get Messi's shirt 😅
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) April 1, 2021
(via @alexisenunes) pic.twitter.com/NaJeRlIjOm