The most underrated penalty taker in history

There are people who greatly underestimate Messi's ability to kick penalties, but the truth is that he is quite good and crucial at this, and in this entry I will show it.

Messi has scored many important penalties, which I will list here:

Argentina 2-1 Nigeria, 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship

Both penalties were converted by him, winning the final. Incredibly crucial.

Barcelona 2-1 Sevilla, La Liga 2007/08

He scored the winning goal with this penalty (Kanouté scored at the last minute). Without this victory, Barcelona would have been 2 points behind and only 2 points from going to the Europa League, and if they had gone there, almost everything that Guardiola did later would probably not have happened.

Barcelona 3-1 Arsenal, Champions League 2010/11

The penalty allowed Barcelona to go directly to the Quarterfinals, and then win the tournament. Without that penalty, they would have gone to overtime, and nobody knows what would have happened afterwards.

Real Madrid 1-1 Barcelona, La Liga 2010/11

He scored Barcelona's only goal in the 1-1 tie. Without that goal, there would have been only one point difference between Barça and Real Madrid, and perhaps it would have affected subsequent games.

AC Milan 2-3 Barcelona and Barcelona 3-1 AC Milan, Champions League 2011/12

He scored a total of 3 penalties, which although they had qualified Barcelona anyway by away goal, would have perhaps changed the game enough so that Milan were not demoralized.

Barcelona 3-2 Real Madrid, Supercopa de España 2012

He made the partial 2-1 win in what would be a 3-2 victory in the first leg of the Super Cup, but unfortunately, they lost it in the second leg by away goals.

Real Madrid 3-4 Barcelona, La Liga 2013/14

He scored 2 of the 4 goals of the match with his penalties (and another one previously). A good victory in search of the title but they ended up losing by a disallowed goal to Messi on the final date.

Barcelona 6-1 PSG, Champions League 2016/17

He made one of the 6 goals in the Comeback of the Century that allowed them to pass the round.

Argentina 1-0 Chile, Qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup

He scored the only goal of the penalty game, vital to qualify for the World Cup later as Argentina would have been 5th, behind Chile and Colombia.

Argentina 1-1 Paraguay, Copa América 2019

He scored the final tying goal. They would have been third in the group without his goal.

Argentina 1-0 Ecuador, Qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup

Winning goal thanks to his penalty. They are currently in second place, but would be third (2 points away from 5th place) without his goal.

Credit: Marca

Messi has undoubtedly been quite decisive when it comes to penalties and is given a bad reputation only for a missed penalty in the 2016 Copa América final (despite the fact that Biglia also missed). Messi is highly underrated and should be much more respected in this regard.