LIVERPOOL, United Kingdom, May 9 – Andy Robertson says he regrets ruffling Lionel Messi’s hair during Liverpool’s 4-0 victory over Barcelona in the Champions League last season.
Barcelona looked set to make the Champions League final after securing a 3-0 lead after the semi-final, first leg at the Camp Nou, but a trademark Anfield European night saw their dreams turn to nightmares after the Reds roared back to advance with a 4-3 aggregate victory.
It was arguably Anfield’s greatest ever European night with two goals apiece from Divock Origi and game-changing half-time substitute Georginio Wijnaldum seeing them progress 4-3 on aggregate, almost a year to the day.
Robertson put in a huge performance on the night, and only now has he finally admitted to regretting his actions.
Robertson decided to press down hard on Lionel Messi’s head, an action which the Scot know thinks was an error, but at the time it seemed to take the Anfield atmosphere up a notch, and probably aided their comeback.
“Me and Fabinho were both tracking him (Messi) back, and we both ended up on the ground, and yeah I just ruffled his hair a wee bit,” Robertson said on That Peter Crouch Podcast.
“He wasn’t too happy, but it’s something I wouldn’t do again that’s for sure! It’s a bit disrespectful to the best player that’s ever played this game.
“He was on the ground and I was on the ground, and I do regret it. But it’s something that everyone relates to me now, which isn’t the best!”
It was the second successive season that Barca had lost a commanding lead in Europe, and Messi revealed that the squad were still recovering ahead of the Copa del Rey final later that month, which they lost 2-1 to Valencia.
He said: “The Liverpool game was a really hard blow for us. Not just for me, but for the whole squad, and it has been hard to recover from it.
“We were terrible on the night at Anfield and to lose in the same way twice in two years is not acceptable.”
