Barcelona's young star Lionel Messi: I did not fake it!

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Barcelona's young star Lionel Messi: I did not fake it!

Carmen

23rd February 2006

Barcelona star Lionel Messi insists he did not play-act to get Chelsea's Asier Del Horno dismissed in his side's 2-1 UEFA Champions League victory at Stamford Bridge.
Isn't this a penalty Mou?

The Barça youngster feels he was not guilty of anything:

"I did not fake anything. It was clear that in the first challenge that he went in studs up and in the second Del Horno was very hard and was intending to hurt me, but I jumped and for that reason did not get hurt."

Also Messi´s team mate Deco defended him:

"It was a very hard challenge and left him with an ugly mark - just look at his leg."

Messi put on an outstanding performance on the night and is now confident that Barça will progress to the next stage:

"If we are capable of playing in the Nou Camp as well as we did in the second half then we won't have any problems in going through. It was a very important result and it would have been nice to have scored a goal but the most important thing is this good result."