

What Messi did was not worse.
You should look at the video, they both do something similar at the beginning, but they diverge sharply.
Messi should have been carded, but he didn’t do anything worse than balogun.
The part where balloons foot lands on the other players ankle is where it goes from a yellow to a red. It was reckless and could have seriously injured another player.










He was on the wrong side of the player to realistically challenge the ball without getting recklessly physical.
Balogun chose to recklessly challenge for the ball and, accident or not, he could have ended another players career.
Instant red card.