One of the defining moments of last season’s incredible Champions League semi final between Liverpool and Barcelona was the moment that Andy Robertson ruffled Lionel Messi’s hair patronisingly.
It came to represent the whole tie – the plucky upstarts, in Robertson’s case just a few seasons removed from the Championship – suddenly turning the tables on the established big boys who were expecting to cruise through after a big win in the first leg.
It made for memorable photos, but the Liverpool left back has confessed that he regrets it:
“I sometimes play as a fan and not as a professional footballer, which is maybe my downfall at times… it’s something I wouldn’t do again, that’s for sure,” the former Hull player commented.
“It’s disrespectful to the best player who’s ever played the game. That match, I’ve never seen a changing room so pumped up. I don’t know what came over me,” he went on in quotes picked up by Eurosport.
We wouldn’t always want to see players go around treating each other like that, but there was something special about this moment. It never felt like anyone else was going to lift the trophy after the confidence that was evident from that one action.
