Lautaro Martinez, disobeying his mother, kept his promise to the kids to play against Barcelona in a Champions League thriller
Lautaro Martinez scored the opener and paved the way for the second goal by winning a penalty in the thriller against Barcelona, but he was crying for two days at home in the buildup to the Champions League game. He was hit by an injury to his leg, and he feared the worst. “I was struggling a bit—I couldn’t even lift my leg. I spent the first two days after the injury in Barcelona crying at home,” Martinez told Sky Sports. He began to train, doing double training sessions all week as he pursued a miraculous recovery. But he had promised his wife and kids that he would play the second leg game. ” I cried with my wife and kids at home, but I promised them I’d play. Even my mom was worried – she called me all morning, but I didn’t answer because she suffers so much.” On the day of the game, he didn’t answer his mother’s calls. “I wore a tight bandage and entered straight onto the field. That’s just how I am. In games like this, you have to be there.” There’s a reason why Martinez is referred to as El Toro (The Bull) in the Argentine dressing room. He was only 15 when one of the biggest clubs in South America, Boca Juniors, came knocking. The club that was home to Diego Maradona, Juan Román Riquelme, and Carlos Tevez, among others, well before they became global icons for the sport. Despite the initial interest, the talks fizzled out as Boca ultimately rejected the forward, apprehensive over his ability to ultimately make the cut into their first team.
Soccer legends stunned by Yamal performance; Inzaghi says he has not seen a player like him in last nine years!
Barcelona and Inter Milan played out a fascinating Champions League semi-final first-leg on Wednesday, leaving the tie evenly balanced ahead of the second leg in Italy next week with a 3-3 draw at the Olympic Stadium. Despite the intensity of the thrill in the nail-biting 90 minutes, Lamine Yamal stole the searchlight once again producing a magnificent performance reminding the golden days of Lionel Messi with Barcelona jerseys. Yamal set a new record, becoming the youngest scorer in the Champions League at the age of 17 years 291 days surpassing Kylian Embappe who scored in the same competition at the age of 18 years 140 days. The soccer stars of the world football seemed almost speechless after watching Yamal against Inter on Wednesday. “It was Messi-esque,” CBS Sports pundit Jamie Carragher said after the game. “That was like watching Messi in his golden days. Getting the ball, the whole game just stopping to see what he’s going to do.” Arsenal and Barcelona legend Thierry Henry was in disbelief at Yamal’s performance, saying: “It’s crazy to think that he is 17 years old. It is crazy, what he is doing, it is just abnormal.” He continued: “We can talk about a lot of guys who are supposed to be on the throne. One thing that always amazes me in football is that you always think that no one’s going to be better… And then Lamine Yamal arrives.” Watching on from home, Erling Haaland shared a screenshot of one of Yamal’s best plays on Wednesday with the caption: “This guy is incredible”. It was a sentiment shared by Inter Milan head coach Simone Inzaghi, who revealed that he had been forced to take drastic measures to stop the young Spaniard: “I haven’t seen a player like Lamine Yamal in the last eight or nine years. We had to put three players on him.” Wednesday’s performances cemented Lamine Yamal’s status as a genuine Ballon d’Or contender if it wasn’t already. The Spaniard has already achieved so much in his young career and is now propelling Barcelona towards a historic treble in 2024/25. An inspiring statistics has come out in the context of Yamal’s brilliant show against Inter Milan on Wednesday: Cristiano Ronaldo at 17 years old: 19 appearances, 5 goals, 4 assists. Lionel Messi at 17 years old: 9 appearances, 1 goal, 0 assists. Lamine Yamal at 17 years old: 100 appearances, 22 goals, 33 assists.
