 "Unflappable Lionel Messi completely loses his cool in Barcelona 'friendly'")
Most of us know what’s it like to get back to work after a relaxing vacation and on our first day have someone irritate us so much we lose our temper. It happens to the best of us. [caption id=“attachment_2381344” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  ‘Who you messing with, boy?’ French defender Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa (L) is grabbed by Barcelona’s Lionel Messi. AFP[/caption] That includes Lionel Messi, who it turns out has a temper after all. In his first game for Barcelona after an all-conquering 2014-15 season, the normally unflappable Messi was at the centre of a headbutting controversy on Wednesday. Barcelona cruised to a 3-0 victory over Serie A side Roma in a pre-season friendly at the Camp Nou but the game grabbed the headlines for Messi’s ugly outburst. The Argentinian superstar, renowned for rarely losing his cool despite regularly being the target of brutal tackling, reacted angrily during a confrontation with Roma’s French international Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa. Footage of the first half incident showed Messi aiming a headbutt at Yanga-Mbiwa’s after the Roma defender appeared to nod his head in the direction of the diminutive South American star. A furious Messi grabbed Yanga-Mbiwa by the throat after clashing with the defender before other players rushed over to intervene.
Messi escaped a red card for the incident however, receiving only a caution from referee Javier Estrada Fernandez. Yanga-Mbiwa was also booked. The flashpoint represented a rare loss of cool for Messi. The Argentine has never been sent off for Barcelona and has only ever been red-carded once – on his international debut as a teenager in 2005. Messi’s anger soon subsided however as moments after the incident, he doubled Barcelona’s lead, making it 2-0 following a superb flowing move involving Luis Suarez, Dani Alves and Neymar, who had scored Barca’s first. With inputs from AFP Here’s how twitter reacted to the incident, with almost inevitable references to Luis Suarez and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Is... is that you, Leo?
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) August 5, 2015
Messi head-butts and chokes opponent, only gets a yellow card. WATCH: http://t.co/0rWq4uZSUJ pic.twitter.com/7CnY3A9OlC
WTF Messi! Channeling his inner Zidane?! Or is Suarez having too much of an impact on him! https://t.co/6HfhZSIGlT
— Zenia D'cunha (@ZENIADCUNHA) August 6, 2015
The people that are defending Messi's actions, are the same ones who would criticize Ronaldo for doing the same exact thing. Stop the bias.
— sυвaн ❂ (@SubahAhmed) August 6, 2015
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