Fans across the world were left puzzled on Wednesday night after Lionel Messi appeared to look inside Marco Verratti’s shorts ahead of Paris Saint-Germain’s 3-0 win over Toulouse.
Goals from Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Juan Bernat meant that it was business as usual on the pitch for the Parisians, but Verratti seemed to be slightly unsettled before the game kicked off.
The Italian appeared to have an issue with his shorts and asked Messi to help him out. The Argentine was more than happy to do just that and peered inside to have a look at the problem, which was likely caused by an itchy label.
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Plenty saw the funny side of the incident and proceeded to make comments about it on social media (as seen via The Sun). Perhaps strangely, it’s not the only humorous tunnel interaction to happen this week.
Chelsea’s Cesar Azpilicueta was left slightly embarrassed by Southampton’s mascot before the Blues’ 2-1 loss to the Saints at the weekend. With a smile on his face, the young supporter held out his hand to the Chelsea skipper, seemingly wanting a handshake.
But as Azpilicueta went to return the gesture, the fan quickly withdrew his hand and put his fingers to his nose to mock the Spaniard.
Looking down the archives, Steven Gerrard had a similar encounter at Stamford Bridge in 2006. Before a crunch tie between Liverpool and Chelsea, the Aston Villa boss was teased by a young Blues mascot. The fake handshake has understandably become an iconic ‘tunnel moment’, as have some others.
Some will cast their minds back to when Roy Keane led Manchester United onto the pitch without the referee’s permission. Or perhaps when Keane himself had an all-out screaming match with Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira before a fiery affair between the old rivals.
Whilst bizarre tunnel incidents tend not to impact the game on that exact matchday, they can produce memorable moments. That suggests that the two moments we’ve seen in the past week won’t be forgotten any time soon.
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