Barcelona defender Inigo Martinez responded to claims he spit in Francesco Acerbi from Inter Milan during their Epic Champions League collision on Tuesday evening.
In the final phases of the first half, Hakan Calhanoglu shot a penalty home to put Inter 2-0 in the night and 5-3 ahead of aggregated, which caused jubilant scenes in San Siro.
Acerbi was seen wildly when he ran past Martinez to celebrate with his teammates, and TV cameras seemed to show that Martinez responded by spit at his opponent.
Acerbi was furious and confronted Martinez and various other Barcelona players, while he also told the referee about what happened, but the incident was deleted by VAR after a review.
Martinez has now expressed himself and admitted that he was angry with Acerbi's behavior after the goal, but denied that he deliberately spit in his direction.
“Acerbi celebrated the goal in my ear, I got angry, but the spit was not aimed at him,” Martinez told reporters after the game.
“Otherwise I would have been sent away.”
Martinez escaped punishment for the incident with Acerbi, but was booked for six minutes in the second half.
In the meantime, the night of Acerbi had just started, because he would pop up in the 93rd minute to take the game to extra time after Barcelona had scored three unanswered goals earlier in the second half.
Davide Fratteni then came from the bank to score the D-Clinch goal in the ninth minute of extra time, while Inter sealed a 7-6 aggregated victory to reach the Champions League final.
They will now play PSG or Arsenal later this month in the showpiece event in the Allianz Arena in Munich.
In the meantime, Martinez now has to wait to discover if he will experience a retrospective action for his alleged spit to Acerbi.
About the potential incident after the last whistle on Tuesday evening, Wayne Rooney emphasized on Amazon Prime that if Martinez had spit his rival, UEFA would intervene quickly.
“You certainly don't want to see that in a football match or somewhere,” said the legend of Manchester United. “When he spits, he gets a punishment he will earn.”
Co-Pundit Daniel Sturridge added: 'Absolutely the same. If he has done that, then it is not good – it is not necessary, it is not necessary.
“We let people do their work and see if he actually did it.”