Inconsolable Messi ‘broke down in tears’ in Barca dressing room after shock Liverpool defeat

Lionel Messi was so distraught at Barcelona’s shock UEFA Champions League drubbing at Anfield that the Argentine star was reportedly reduced to tears in the dressing room.

Messi and Barcelona saw their Champions League dreams evaporate on a night of high drama in Liverpool, seeing their 3-0 first-leg lead obliterated by a rampant home team who ran out 4-0 winners on the night.

It was the second time in successive seasons that Ernesto Valverde’s Barcelona team have been on the wrong end of a stirring fight-back, after last season letting a 4-1 quarter-final first-leg lead slip against Roma.

This time round the damage was done at a raucous Anfield, leaving Messi and his fellow Barcelona players shell-shocked at the final whistle.

After they had trudged back to the dressing room, it was apparently all too much for skipper Messi, who broke down in tears, according to the Guardian.

To compound his misery, the Argentine ace was then selected to submit a drugs test sample, meaning he missed the coach to Liverpool’s John Lennon airport and had to travel separately.

Once there, he was involved in an angry confrontation with furious fans, according to reports in the Spanish press.

Footage showed a forlorn Messi passing the press zone as he made his way out of Anfield without speaking to reporters.

Teammate Luis Suarez – who endured a tough return to his former stomping ground – did front up to the press, saying his team “looked like schoolboys” in the way they conceded the decisive fourth goal.

Barca players had been caught napping at a corner by the quick-thinking Trent Alexander-Arnold, which Divock Origi turned into the net.    

"We have to be ready for all the criticism that is going to rain down on us now," Suarez said after the game, having endured vociferous jeers from the home fans.

"We are very sad, we are in a lot of pain," he added.

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While Messi shed tears of despair in the dressing room, on the Anfield pitch Liverpool midfielder James Milner was seen crying tears of joy as his team lapped up the adulation from home fans in the famous Kop.

Liverpool now face either Ajax or Tottenham in the final at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid on June 1.