Manchester United defender Chris Smalling certainly wasn’t mincing his words when he said he’d relish the chance to face Lionel Messi, Smalling left Messi bloody after this challenge. In the 28th minute of tonight’s clash, Smalling came straight through the back of Messi when the Argentinian star was attempting to control a ball that was coming down from the air. It’s extremely surprising to see that the referee didn’t award a foul for this challenge, Smalling looks as though he’s paying no attention on the ball and his main focus was just to clatter Messi. Will Smalling regret doing this to the five-time Ballon d’Or winner? Check out Smalling’s challenge on the superstar below: Smalling challenge in Messi pic.twitter.com/RIVUOFaHcO — GOAT ? (@messigoalss) April 10, 2019 Messi: ……….. Smalling: bring it on! Messi: ……….. Smalling: Gbas gbos gbas gbos pic.twitter.com/HQx4MKCFd7 — Collins (@scottiethepope) April 10, 2019 The tie is certainly beginning to heat up, reckless challenges are flying in all over the pitch. Fans wouldn’t have expected the clash to be this heated.<doc-sep>Once you have subscribed we will use the email you provided to send you the newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the newsletter email. Chris Smalling was really talking the talk in the build-up to Manchester United's game at home to Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-final. The English centre-back declared he was relishing the challenge of facing one of the world's greatest ever players in Lionel Messi. "It's something to relish I think," he said, per Goal. "This season, we have been lucky enough to face [Cristiano] Ronaldo, [Kylian] Mbappe and they are all challenges that I definitely relish and I think players at this club relish. "I say bring it on." Needless to say, a number of people were questioning Smalling's mentality, but the Englishman certainly found a way to stop the Argentine in the first-half of the game tonight. With the ball in the air, Smalling came flying out of nowhere to head the ball, clattering Messi in the process and leaving the Barca legend with a bloody nose. VIDEO Well, that's one way to stop him, but it did look a tad unnecessary from Smalling. Thankfully, Messi was fine to continue. News Now - Sport News<doc-sep>Chris Smalling breaks Lionel Messi's nose, retirement announcement expected tomorrow When asked about marking Lionel Messi in the build-up to Wednesday's game Chris Smalling said: "Bring it on" We now know what he meant. It turns out he has been fooling us this entire time, Chris Smalling; the softly-spoken, vegan lifestyle-following, occasional header-er and scuffer of footballs. This is what he truly is, deep down. Some kind of animal. Some kind of monster. Or, even worse, some kind of 00s Serie A built-like-a-brick-shithouse centre-back. A Paolo Montero. A Walter Samuel. A - *gasp* - ... a Traianos Dellas. Advertisement You can picture him lying awake last night, tucked up in his United bedsheets, watching I'm Chris Smalling and I'm Phil Jones on YouTube over and over again, building himself up into a kind of unstoppable mental fury all whilst stroking his goatee and giggling to himself like a small schoolgirl. Or a serial killer. And to think he had almost let his malevolent intentions slip with those three words in the build-up. "Bring it on". We should have known he had something up his sleeve, that Chris Smalling had simply no reason to be so enthusiastic about facing the best player in the world, of all time, in the same way that the dinosaurs would have had no reason to be enthusiastic about that large fiery object hurtling through the sky towards them. We should have known that Chris Smalling was up to something all along. His career so far - all the occasional good defending mixed with the dodgy passes and falling over and watching Phil Jones a couple of yards away falling over - were building up to this, the very pinnacle of his career, the single defining Chris Smalling moment. Advertisement And it came as a long ball was hoofed up to football's golden prince, Lionel Messi, who, let's be honest, had absolutely no interest in challenging for it. Chris Smalling though... oh boy. Chris Smalling wanted it. Chris Smalling wanted it more than Phil Jones usually wants it, and Phil Jones usually wants it so much he is willing to throw himself into the turf like a human earthworm and dig his way straight to the planet's molten core. Just look. Just look at what he did to our beautiful Argentinian son. Smalling has given Messi a Steve Bruce. He’ll be whistling in his sleep for the next thirty years pic.twitter.com/0iJbKQ6AS8 — FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) April 10, 2019 You got what you wanted, Chris Smalling. You did it. You gave Messi a Steve Bruce and a bit of a shiner. Was it worth it? Was it worth it Chris? All that planning? All that bringing of it? All that bringing of it on? Just look at how disappointed he looks. He thought you were better than this, Chris Smalling. He really did. Not in football terms obviously. But as a person. As a human being. Advertisement You can retire now, Chris Smalling. You can walk off into the sunset knowing you got what you wanted. Knowing that you won a header against Messi and roughed him up a bit in the process. That you didn't get the Jerome Boateng treatment. Congratulations. I hope your grandchildren are good listeners. I imagine they will be hearing about this one for a while.<doc-sep>Manchester United defender Chris Smalling says he’s relishing the prospect of taking on Lionel Messi in their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday. The Barcelona captain comes into the game in truly exceptional form, but Smalling says it’s a challenge he’s looking forward to ahead of the first leg at Old Trafford. “It’s something to relish, I think,” he said. “This season I’ve been lucky enough to face Cristiano Ronaldo [for Juventus], Kylian Mbappé [PSG] and they’re all challenges I definitely relish and players at this club relish. I say bring it on.” Smalling is expected to line up alongside Victor Lindelof in the heart of the Manchester United defence. The duo will have their work cut out against Messi who has 10 goals and three assists in his last six club outings.<doc-sep>
Lionel Messi was left in a heap on the Old Trafford pitch by Chris Smalling after the Manchester United defender left the Barcelona forward with a bloody nose after half an hour of their game. Before Barcelona's Champions League quarter final first leg away against Manchester United a lot of the talk was about United centre back Chris Smalling and how he might deal with Lionel Messi. Trying to work out how to deal with the La Liga champions' top scorer of all time is a difficult task for any side that come up against him but Smalling doesn't always have the best reputation. Advert 10 Loading… Speaking ahead of the game the former Fulham defender said, "It's something to relish, this season I've been lucky enough to face (Cristiano) Ronaldo, (Kylian) Mbappe, they're all challenges I relish and the players relish. I say bring it on." Strong and encouraging words from the Englishman but the worry was always going to be that Messi would bloody his nose in the match. However in the first half it was actually Smalling who would bloody the nose of the five time Ballon d'Or winner, though he did it in a much more literal way: Advert 10 Advert 10 Before the game, Chris Smalling told Messi to "bring it on." He wasn't joking. pic.twitter.com/0u64JdSN3X - ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) April 10, 2019 Messi returning to the field eyeing up Smalling like... pic.twitter.com/4KPCaFA3pE - ODDSbible (@ODDSbible) April 10, 2019 Chris Smalling on Lionel Messi pic.twitter.com/WEAGA9nllZ - Jonas Giæver (@CheGiaevara) April 10, 2019 Advert 10 That secret Smalling knew about Messi is that if you cut him, he bleeds. - Paddy Power (@paddypower) April 10, 2019 Chris Smalling when he sees Lionel Messi #MUNBAR pic.twitter.com/4Wuzry4xjM - Football Daily (@footballdaily) April 10, 2019 Advert 10 Smalling's plan to stop Messi in full effect pic.twitter.com/3O54OmfRSx - Juan Velazquez (@JuanDirection58) April 10, 2019 Of course it wasn't all one way traffic to Smalling as Barcelona opened the scoring earlier in the first half through Luis Suarez's header and it was of course assisted by Messi.