{"id":122693,"date":"2026-07-20T11:36:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T11:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfortnite.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/20\/messi-branded-a-baby-after-desperate-attempt-to-get-cucurella-sent-off\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T11:36:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T11:36:06","slug":"messi-branded-a-baby-after-desperate-attempt-to-get-cucurella-sent-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfortnite.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/20\/messi-branded-a-baby-after-desperate-attempt-to-get-cucurella-sent-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi branded a \u2018baby\u2019 after desperate attempt to get Cucurella sent off"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Messi\u2019s World Cup final frustration sparked controversy after he appealed for action against Marc Cucurella\u2019s mouth-covering exchange during Argentina\u2019s defeat to Spain. While no punishment followed, pundits criticised the reaction as unsportsmanlike. Spain ultimately prevailed through Ferran Torres\u2019 extra-time winner, ending Argentina\u2019s title defence and leaving Messi\u2019s final World Cup appearance marked by disappointment.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Messi\u2019s World Cup final frustration sparked controversy after he appealed for action against Marc Cucurella\u2019s mouth-covering exchange during Argentina\u2019s defeat to Spain. While no punishment followed, pundits criticised the reaction as unsportsmanlike. Spain ultimately prevailed through Ferran Torres\u2019 extra-time winner, ending Argentina\u2019s title defence and leaving Messi\u2019s final World Cup appearance marked by disappointment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":122694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfortnite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfortnite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfortnite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfortnite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsfortnite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfortnite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfortnite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfortnite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfortnite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}