Danny Rose has revealed how former Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino advised him to mark Lionel Messi.
Pochettino knew the Barcelona star intimately from his time managing Espanyol, and warned Rose not to make him angry by kicking him.
Rose, currently on loan at Newcastle, said on Instagram: “I was on the bench for the home game in the Champions League and when we played away [Messi] came on for the last 15 minutes,” remembered the left-back.
“I s**t myself when he came on to be fair. Poch told me in the hotel before the game, I had just come back from injury and he told me, yeah you are playing and he said ‘no matter what you do don’t kick Messi, don’t make him angry’.
“I’m thinking no you can’t be telling me this. I normally sleep in the afternoon, so I went back to my room and I just laid on my bed thinking what the f**k am I supposed to do tonight.
“Luckily he didn’t play and then he came on and I am thinking don’t foul him, don’t foul him. He said ‘don’t make him angry, if he gets angry we will lose’.
“Then Harry Kane said ‘I am going to lamp him so he takes it out on you’. We did well that game.”
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