Tottenham Hotspur defender Cristian Romero declares that his phenomenal equaliser with Newcastle United would not have been possible without the time he has spent under the tutelage of Lionel Messi.
On Tuesday, the centre-back gave one of the most dramatic performances of his Premier League career as he scored both goals in the 2-2 draw with Spurs at St James’ Park and brought a vital point to a team that was experiencing difficulties in surpassing its adversaries once again.
Newcastle seemed to be winning the game when Bruno Guimarães scored the first goal in the 71 st minute. Tottenham was only relieved temporarily as seven minutes later Romero replied with a floating header that changed the momentum of the game. Anthony Gordon put Newcastle back ahead in the 86th minute and Spurs gazed at what would have been their fourth consecutive loss in all competitions.
Rather, Romero created an instance of pure defiance on injury time – an overhead kick delivered with unexpected elegance as a centre-back. The ball went around Aaron Ramsdale and into the net, and it quieted the St James park and renewed the hope of Spurs to stabilise their league performance.
Romero said to Sky Sports in an interview after the game that Spurs badly needed some sort of response. The first was an extremely significant goal, he said. During the previous three or four games the team was not good enough. It has been a hard period but more so in this game I like the mentality.
When questioned as to the second goal which was an acrobatic one, Romero directly attributed it to Messi. He said every time I see Leo Messi on the national team, I watch him score a beautiful goal, so maybe it is one of those moves that he mastered by watching the Argentine captain at close quarters.
Romero and Messi played a key role in Argentina winning the 2022 world cup and their 2024 Argentinean victory in the 2024 world cup. The heroics of Tuesday strengthened the position of Romero who has been gradually becoming one of the most decisive defenders in the Premier League.
