LIONEL MESSI has broken his silence on Argentina’s “painful” World Cup final defeat to Spain.
The legendary superstar failed in his bid to seal back-to-back World Cup trophies as his team were swept aside 1-0 by the Spaniards at the MetLife Stadium.
Messi was anonymous and could not inspire Argentina, who failed to have a shot on target across 120 minutes.
And the 2022 champions disgraced themselves by starting a brawl after the game, with a number of stars involved in a scuffle.
Leandro Paredes was seen grabbing Spain defender Eric Garcia by the throat in ugly scenes.
Now Barcelona icon Messi has released a statement speaking about his heartache – admitting “it will be hard to close this wound”
He wrote on Instagram: “The pain is so great and it’s going to be hard for me to close this wound.
“But I’ll keep all the good stuff too.. With the matches we turned leaving everything and that will remain forever in the memory, with the support of an entire country that together with the work and effort of this group led us to be, once again, among the best in the world.
“Today it’s hard to evaluate what we did, but this group reached two consecutive World Cup finals.
“Thank you very much from the heart for every greeting and for every message.
“Once again we manage to unite as a country and be all together, sharing the immense pride of being Argentinian. I also want to congratulate Spain for the championship.”
The post received nearly 2million likes less than 30 minutes after it was published.
Argentina’s night of agony was summed up by manager Lionel Scaloni, who had to cut his press conference short because he was too emotional.
The 48-year-old, who guided the team to glory four years ago, said the loss “hurts his soul”.
He said: “To be where I am today is a dream come true.
“We tried, right up to the very end to give it our all both the coaching staff and the players.
“I think it’s only right that I take this time to think about it all. It’s a beautiful position to be in.”
Scaloni then struggled to hold back the tears as he apologised before walking out of his briefing.
“It’s somewhere I’ve dreamed of being. So to carry on, lots of things are necessary.
“Above all we need time to reset and form another group like this one. It’ll be hard to recreate this one. It hurts my soul, I’m sorry.”
Scaloni, who also won two Copa America titles, looks set to resign as Argentina boss after confirming he will “most likely step away” from the role.