Lionel Messi Shockingly Escapes Red Card After Shoving Sevilla's Diego Carlos

Barcelona captain Lionel Messi managed to avoid being handed a red card after shoving Sevilla defender Diego Carlos.

Messi has had many epic battles against Sevilla throughout his entire LaLiga career. And Thursday’s (June 18) match at Sánchez-Pizjuán was no different as the Argentine lost his cool in the middle of the game.

Both Barca and Sevilla were having a hard time finding the back of the net the entire game. In fact, the match ended in a 0-0 draw. This could have evidently added to the players’ frustration inside the pitch.

In the last few minutes of the first half, Carlos made a hard tackle on Luis Suárez from behind, which angered Messi. The six-time Ballon d’Or winner went straight to the Brazilian and shoved him hard, The Sun reported.

After realizing that Messi laid a hand on him in the middle of a game, Carlos apparently decided to intentionally tumble to the ground. However, the replay showed that it was exaggerated and delayed. Carlos’ obvious plan to send Messi out of the game didn’t help at all. Other Barca players got involved and started pushing and pulling Carlos by the shirt. In the end, Messi was lucky not to have been sent off.

Messi has been actively involved in confrontations with opposing teams since LaLiga returned. During half-time against Real Mallorca, Messi confronted Mallorca coach Vicente Moreno and told him Barcelona will score seven goals on them.

As for controversial in-game calls, this wasn’t the first time Messi’s name has come up this week. On Tuesday’s match against Leganes, the 32-year-old was awarded with a penalty, which improved Barcelona’s win to 2-0.

While Messi has once again scored another beautiful penalty goal, it made quite a buzz as some think it shouldn’t have ended that way. Marca’s Julio Maldonado, known as Maldini, shared his thoughts on the matter after the game.

Maldini said he believes a penalty shouldn't have been awarded, but he feels that VAR did well in not overturning it as it wasn't a clear and obvious error. And because of Messi’s “courageous” display during the play, he was handed the penalty.

"In Messi's courageous run, he won a penalty," he said in his post-match thoughts for Marca.

"It wasn't a penalty for me. But I understand why it was given because, when the action is debatable, VAR is right in not making the referee revise the decision. It wasn't a clear cut error, so I think they did well to not overturn it,” he continued.