‘Pain is immense’ – Lionel Messi breaks silence on World Cup final defeat that ended in disgrace with emotional post

LIONEL MESSI has broken his silence on Argentina’s “painful” World Cup final defeat to Spain. The legendary superstar failed in his bid to seal back-to-back World Cup trophies as his side were swept aside 1-0 by the Spaniards at the MetLife Stadium. Lionel Messi has admitted Argentina are in ‘pain’ after their agonising World Cup final defeat Credit: Shutterstock Editorial Messi was anonymous and could not inspire Argentina, who failed to have a shot on target across 120 minutes. And the 2022 champions disgraced themselves by starting a brawl after the game, with a number of stars involved in a scuffle. Sign up for the Football newsletter Thank you! Leandro Paredes was seen grabbing Spain defender Eric Garcia by the throat in ugly scenes. Now the Barcelona icon has released a statement speaking about his heartache – admitting “it will be hard to close this wound”. READ MORE ON THE WORLD CUP He said: “The pain is so great and it’s going to be hard for me to close this wound. “But I’ll keep all the good stuff too.. With the matches we turned leaving everything and that will remain forever in the memory, with the support of an entire country that together with the work and effort of this group led us to be, once again, among the best in the world. “Today it’s hard to evaluate what we did, but this group reached two consecutive World Cup finals. “Thank you very much from the heart for every greeting and for every message. Most read in Sport “Once again we manage to unite as a country and be all together, sharing the immense pride of being Argentinian. I also want to congratulate Spain for the championship.” More to follow. Comment now