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What's the story?
Barcelona talisman Lionel Messi has revealed that shocking defeat against Liverpool in the Champions League hurts more than losing in the World Cup final.
In case you didn’t know….
Barcelona were handed a humiliating defeat in the Champions League finals by Liverpool. The Catalan giants were hoping for their 6th Champions League title but Liverpool mounted a historic comeback to knock them out from the competition. After winning 3-0 at Nou Camp in the first leg, Barcelona succumbed to a 4-0 defeat in the return leg at Anfield.
This was not the first time that the Blaugrana failed to hold on to a three goal advantage as they were knocked out by Roma last year in a similar manner. Barcelona last won the Champions League in 2015 whereas bitter rivals Real Madrid have won the title three times since then.
Barcelona will end their season with only the La Liga title as they also suffered a 2-1 defeat against Valencia in the Copa Del Rey finals. Meanwhile, Lionel Messi enjoyed one of his best individual campaign as he ended the season with 51 goals in all competitions.
Messi won his sixth Pichichi and sixth European Golden Shoe for 36 goals in the league and he also leads in the Champions League scoring charts with 12 goals.
The heart of the matter
The 31-year-old is yet to taste International glory with Argentina. The Argentine's biggest achievement in recent years was reaching the World Cup final in 2014, which they lost against Germany. Messi revealed that the humiliating defeat against Liverpool hurts more than the World Cup final loss.
Speaking in an interview, Messi said:
“Obviously losing a World Cup final, which is the most important game of all, is a big disappointment. But it another thing altogether to have a result 3-0 in your favour and then have it turned over.".
“Both games were very big shocks – but losing to Liverpool hurt more because we just did not expect it.”
What's next?
Messi will get another shot at International glory as Argentina hope to win the Copa America in the upcoming month.
