Manuel Ugarte spoke about his obscene gesture to Rodrigo De Paul in Argentina-Uruguay: “I did it without realizing it”

Last Thursday Uruguay gave the big hit and won in Buenos Aires against Argentina, giving them the first defeat since the title in the Qatar World Cup. The team of Marcelo Bielsa had several high points and one of them was Manuel Ugarte, who also went viral for a crossing with Rodrigo de Paul.

The player of PSG He crossed paths with the Albiceleste midfielder in the first half and made an obscene gesture at him, while accusing him of being a “bootlicker” Lionel Messi. The event did not go unnoticed, since it was captured by the broadcast cameras and this Tuesday, in dialogue with Sport890 radio, he recalled what happened.

“At the time I made it possible that without realizing it, but the game continued and I found out that the gesture had gone viral when the game ended. I didn’t remember which one it was. At first I wanted to kill myself, but obviously it’s not right, but hey, it’s a game that is played at maximum intensitySometimes in the heat I do things that I don’t have to dobut the important thing is that we won,” he commented on what happened on the La Bombonera lawn.

Furthermore, he said that on the field his gesture had no major significance: “I didn’t talk to De Paul, but obviously I apologize because it is something that went viral. But also as he said, it is something that remains on the field, I think he did not take it well, but he made it important, as it should be and well, it was the way it was.” Although, he did acknowledge that Lionel Messi He was very upset by those types of gestures and comments: “Yes, I think so. But well, there are things that remain there that I may have to think about later but they suddenly come to me, but as I tell you, I didn’t realize it at the time.

In this sense, he highlighted that this type of thing often happens in games, but they are rarely captured by TV cameras, which is why footballers are used to dealing with these intersections in games: “Many things are said in the game that don’t come out later, but all the players know that these are things that are said. Even sometimes among teammates they bitch but after the game they greet each other.”

On the other hand, he highlighted the great level that Uruguay showed to win 2-0 and that one of the keys was the concentration with which the Uruguayan team played: “We had to take care of the details because Argentina is the world champion and has players of great quality and they have Leo Messi who, if you’re not careful, hits you and I think we did very well.” Precisely, regarding the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, he said: “I think he played quite uncomfortable, we all know what it is and what it generates, it generally takes 2 or 3 players, but I think we staggered it well, we took it well “We changed brands well, sometimes he went down and we followed him, I think he played awkwardly.”

Ugarte, who will not be able to play against Bolivia tonight due to having reached the yellow card limit, also criticized the refereeing of Wilmar Roldan, whom he accused of harming Uruguay with his mistakes: “It makes me very helpless, but we have to focus on what we can control and we don’t have to get heated because that takes you out of the game. I felt like he wasn’t listening to me, so I tried to focus and not get the second yellow.”

With the victory, the Celeste reached 10 points in Qualifiers and is second, behind Argentina, leader with 12. It should be noted that the first six will go directly to the 2026 World Cup, while the seventh, which for the moment is Paraguay, will play in the playoffs. Those who are out of everything, for now, are Peru (1), Bolivia (3) and Chile (5)