MADRID, September 25- Malaga defender Weligton claims he grabbed Lionel Messi by the throat because the Barcelona forward had insulted him by calling him a “son of a bitch.”
Weligton was shown a yellow card late on in Wednesday’s 0-0 draw for an incident which left Messi on the floor.
The defender appeared to initiate contact with a minor shoulder-to-shoulder bump, before briefly grasping the Argentina captain by the throat and pushing him backwards.
However, Weligton says he only reacted and confronted Messi because of the words that his opponent had initially said to him.
“A minute before Messi tried to play a one-two, I tried to block him with my arm,” Weligton told Cadena SER. “He thought I caught him in the face, but it was by accident. You can see from the images. He got angry and came at me, calling me a ‘son of a bitch.’ That was when I caught him by the throat.”
Weligton was shown a yellow for confronting Lionel Messi on Wednesday.
The pair did not discuss the incident after the game and the Malaga man says there was nothing left to talk about.
“There was no need to talk with him afterwards,” Weligton said. “If he wants to talk to me then no problem, if I make a mistake then I recognise it and apologise. But if he acts another way, then no problem either.”
Weligton went on to praise his side’s efforts in bringing an end to Barcelona’s 100 percent winning start to their Primera Division campaign.
“The whole team played a great game so I congratulate everyone. It’s not easy to hold the players that Barca possess,” he said.
“But over the last few days we’ve watched a lot of their videos and managed to put our ideas into practice.”
-ESPN FC
