Jamie Carragher and Gary Lineker involved in Twitter bust-up after Lionel Messi debate
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher was involved in a Twitter spat with Gary Lineker in the wake of his Lionel Messi debate. During his weekly show with Gary Neville on Sky Sports, Jamie Carragher backed Lionel Messi ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo as the best player.
However, as the debate unfolded on the show titled 'Monday Night Football' (MNF), there was a glaring error put out by Sky Sports. In the list of achievements by Lionel Messi, the MNF team did not include the Copa America triumph in July.
There was also another notable omission in terms of the Champions League as it was mentioned Lionel Messi won it only thrice instead of four.
How the Jamie Carragher-Gary Lineker spat unfolded over a Lionel Messi stat
Fans on Twitter couldn't help but notice how Sky Sports' MNF overlooked Lionel Messi's achievements and accused them of being biased towards Ronaldo. Lineker, who handles the Match of the Day show (MOTD) for the BBC, also joined in to point out the errors.
The former Leicester City and Barcelona striker jokingly tweeted:
"To be fair, it's such a long time since Messi led Argentina to victory in Copa America, they're entitled to forget it."
The tweet was then shared by a user who termed the mistake "ridiculous." Lineker replied to the fan's tweet saying it was "four" Champions League titles and not three for Lionel Messi, as the Sky Sports MNF graphic suggested.
Jamie Carragher decided to intervene at that point and explained why the MNF graphic went with three Champions League titles for Lionel Messi:
“We made a mistake on a graphic over Messi’s international honours. It happens a lot on MOTD. Check Messi’s record in 2006 in the CL, he didn’t play 1 min after 1st KO round, so we counted it as 3.
“We don’t have autocue on MNF so I’m sure you’d also make a mistake now & again.”
Lineker quickly hit back at Jamie Carragher by replying:
“Yes, we do, and when they happen, they’re quite rightly pointed out.”
The Liverpool legend soon hit back at Lineker by asking him to mind the business at MOTD for the BBC:
“I know you spend the majority of your time on twitter but just look after MOTD & we’ll do the same on MNF. If you ever want to come on with no autocue you’re welcome.”
Lineker retorted:
“You seem to be picking fights with everybody these days. I hope you’re alright, Jamie.”
Jamie Carragher ended up dousing the fire by stating he was just backing up his stats guy at MNF:
“I’m fine Gary, just sticking up for our stats guy. Appreciate your concern.”
Lineker then referred to Jamie Carragher as a "good man", pulling the curtains down on the verbal exchange between the two.