Jude Bellingham has played down his early confrontation with Lionel Messi after England’s World Cup dream came to a painful end against Argentina in Atlanta.
The Real Madrid midfielder was involved in a fiery exchange with the Argentina captain just four minutes into Wednesday night’s semi-final, with television cameras capturing the pair gesturing at one another during a heated opening spell.
The incident quickly attracted attention on social media, with many supporters speculating that tensions had boiled over between two of the world’s biggest stars.
But Bellingham insisted there was no lingering animosity and revealed the pair had simply disagreed over a challenge earlier in the match.
“We were discussing a foul actually,” Bellingham said.
“But no, it was nothing, nothing bad.
“I’m sure everyone will do their thing and make it a big deal. But no, it was nothing really.
“I thought there was a foul earlier and he said, ‘What about the one on me?’ and I was saying, ‘Well you’re strong enough to take them.’
Jude Bellingham has played down his early confrontation with Lionel Messi after England’s World Cup dream came to a painful end against Argentina in Atlanta
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“But no, it was a privilege to play against him.
“There was nothing like that against him. I’m obviously on the losing side which hurts a lot. But it was a privilege to line up against him.”
Messi once again proved decisive as Argentina recovered from a goal down to book their place in a second successive World Cup final.
Anthony Gordon had given England the lead before Enzo Fernandez levelled with a stunning strike from distance.
Every team to have won the World Cup | GETTY/GB NEWS
Lautaro Martinez then headed home Messi’s cross deep into stoppage time to complete Argentina’s dramatic 2-1 comeback and send Lionel Scaloni’s side through to Sunday’s final against Spain.
England manager Thomas Tuchel defended the tactical changes that followed Gordon’s opener after coming under heavy criticism for introducing several defensive substitutions as Argentina seized control of the contest.
“If it doesn’t go well, it’s easy to say that it was wrong,” Tuchel said.
“We just tried to help the players. We conceded straight away. We decided to go to a back five because the gaps were far too open.
“Straight after our goal, without a substitution we conceded way too many crosses and chances. We tried to help but the responsibility was on the coach.”
Tuchel also rejected suggestions that England had deliberately tried to defend their advantage from the moment Gordon scored.
“We couldn’t get out,” he added.
“Of course we wanted to go for the second goal but I didn’t feel an offensive substitution would help.
Thomas Tuchel refused to blame his defensive approach after England crashed out of the World Cup at the hands of Argentina
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“We stayed in our 4-4-2 but we became passive, couldn’t win any balls or keep the ball. It wasn’t a structure problem.
“We changed nothing after the goal but the match changed completely.”
The defeat leaves England facing France in Saturday’s third-place play-off.
Argentina, meanwhile, will attempt to retain the World Cup when they meet Spain in New Jersey.
