Last night saw Inter Miami defeat Orlando City SC in the Round of 32 of the Leagues Cup. Lionel Messi was the star of the match as he scored a goal in each half to take his team to victory in the Florida derby. The match, however, was a tense affair, marred with questionable refereeing decisions amid claims of a dubious penalty call.

The 7x Ballon d’Or winner also faced the heat from Orlando’s Cesar Araujo with the duo exchanging menacing glances and words throughout the night. As per his post-match presser, this was part of Araujo’s ploy to stop Leo.

Cesar Araujo reveals a failure in the execution of the plan to stop Lionel Messi

It seems Orlando City SC defenders took a page out of La Liga defenders’ playbook for Messi. Throughout the 90 minutes yesterday, the opposition defenders played rough and tough against Messi with tackles galore. Naturally, this led to the Argentine losing his cool a couple of times.

Orlando’s Cesar Araujo was one of the main instigators and was quipped about this in the presser. He shared that their plan for the ball to not reach Messi failed miserably. “We had a plan for when we don’t have the ball, it doesn’t reach Messi. And we couldn’t deal with the plan. We’re leaving sad,” the Uruguayan said in his post-match presser with ESPN.

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As Messi was visibly frustrated with the constant poking by Cesar and Co, the seven-time Ballon d’Or also started giving it back aggressively.

What did Cesar Araujo and Messi tell each other during the match?

Messi exchanged a host of words with Araujo and based on their body language, they certainly didn’t seem friendly. Despite Orlando’s best attempts to rattle La Pulga, they failed as Messi’s brace helped Miami reach the 90 comfortably.

Araujo, post-match, was asked about his war of words with Messi. Journalists in the room were curious to know what was said between the duo but the Uruguayan chose the path of humility and in fact praised Messi. “In many years that have passed, there is no formula to stop Messi. We did everything we could, but we’re leaving sad. Anecdote to tell? Anecdote that I played against the best in the world. Happy life for that,” he concluded.

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What do you think went down between the duo? Let us know your thoughts below!