Lionel Messi was asked if he knows the rules of football by referee Gil Manzano during Real Madrid vs Barcelona on Saturday evening.
The Catalan giants slipped to a 2-1 defeat against their bitter rivals in 'El Clasico' and it could spell the end of their La Liga title hopes.
Controversy towards the end of the game saw Barcelona denied a penalty after Martin Braithwaite appeared to be pulled down by Ferland Mendy.
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Manzano saw nothing in the challenge and it wasn't reviewed by VAR.
It has now been claimed he had words with Barcelona captain Messi and per Sport-FM, the Argentine superstar said: "Referee show respect, speak well."
That was met with a reply of: "Do you know the rules of football or not? If you don't, then I'll explain them to you later."
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Another interesting wrinkle in this saga is Manzano is the only referee in Spain to give Messi a red card in his career.
Messi wasn't the only Barca star to take issue with the referee's performance however.
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Gerard Pique was only on the bench but still deemed it necessary to approach the referee at full-time.
Luka Modric noticed he was queuing up for the referee and footage picked up the Croatian mocking his opponent, asking "You're waiting for the ref to complain huh?"
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First half strikes from Karim Benzema and Toni Kroos were enough to seal a win for Zinedine Zidane's side, who are top of the table with Atletico Madrid yet to play this weekend.
Barcelona did grow into the game and grab a goal through Oscar Mingueza.
But they couldn't find an equaliser with teenager Ilaix Moriba smashing his shot against the crossbar late on.
Featured Image Credit: PA Images & La LigaTopics: Football, Barcelona, Lionel Messi, Real Madrid