{"id":534949,"date":"2026-07-06T00:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T00:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/534949\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T00:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T00:41:10","slug":"pico-lopes-details-lionel-messi-exchange-during-argentina-v-cape-verde","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/534949\/","title":{"rendered":"Pico Lopes details Lionel Messi exchange during Argentina v Cape Verde"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dubliner exchanged words with Lionel Messi during the World Cup last 32 clash<\/p>\n

15:53, 05 Jul 2026Updated 00:19, 06 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

\"Pico<\/p>\n

Pico Lopes and Lionel Messi(Image: Megan Briggs\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Pico Lopes says there wasn’t much to a confrontation between himself and Lionel Messi during Argentina’s win over Cape Verde.<\/p>\n

It took the South American giants until extra-time to see off the African nation, who Shamrock Rovers<\/a> captain Lopes qualifies to represent through his father.<\/p>\n

The Dubliner and Messi<\/a> were seen exchanging words during the last 32 clash, which Argentina won 3-2 following extra-time after the game finished 1-1 in 90 minutes.<\/p>\n

“There was nothing really to it. I think he took exception,” Lopes told Cathal Dervan of OTS Media.<\/p>\n

“I think I gave him a little push because he is just in front of me and I wanted to make sure he stayed there because if he got in behind me, we saw what he could do last night.<\/p>\n

“He was just making it known that, ‘That is a foul. You pushed me off the ball’. And I was like, ‘I know, but I have to keep you there’.”<\/p>\n

Lopes added the pair “had a handshake, a little laugh, and we got on with it”.<\/p>\n

While admitting that the narrow margin of the defeat is still raw, Lopes admits himself and his teammates can look back on their World Cup<\/a> journey with great pride.<\/p>\n

The underdogs twice fought back against the defending champions, with the second comeback proving to be one of the tournament’s standout moments as left-back Sidny Lopes Cabral unleashed a spectacular shot into the top-corner during extra-time.<\/p>\n

Lisandro Martinez had previously netted in the additional period to make it 2-1 after Lionel Messi’s first-half opener had been levelled by Cape Verde’s Deroy Duarte.<\/p>\n

Cabral’s strike and the subsequent wave of jubilation as he climbed into the crowd to embrace his family appeared destined to become the defining memory of the match.<\/p>\n

However, Argentina dramatically seized victory when Cristian Romero challenged for Messi’s corner delivery, and in attempting to prevent him, Borges diverted the ball into his own goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re playing against the reigning world champions but when you cross the pitch you have to treat them as equals,” Lopes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is 11v11. We showed great character, we showed great courage and bravery to attack them when we got our opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just got a shock a few minutes before penalties which would have been a great way to end that game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t to be but we will take huge pride in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dubliner exchanged words with Lionel Messi during the World Cup last 32 clash 15:53, 05 Jul 2026Updated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[226962,226963,2957,42,2539,103976,28776,43,103977,91985,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-534949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-argentina-football-team","tag-argentina-national-football-team","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-headlines","tag-league-of-ireland","tag-league-of-ireland-premier-division","tag-lionel-messi","tag-news","tag-shamrock-rovers-f-c","tag-shamrock-rovers-fc","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}