Barça gets a crucial win over Sevilla in La Liga

Yesterday, Barcelona won one of their most important games this season in La Liga. With amazing vision, Messi assisted Dembélé's first goal, and later secured the win near the end of the game with a fantastic solo play that ended with a rebound and a weak foot goal. His stats were the following: 1 goal, 1 assist, 1 big chance created, 3 SOT (4 in total), 7 dribbles, 1 key pass, 13 ground duels won, 4 fouls received, 1 interception, 2 tackles, 14 pressures, 2 long balls, 56 passes and 94 touches, which all combined made for yet another 10/10 performance from him. He also leads the Pichichi race by 3 goals over Suárez, and last but not least, he's scored his 30th goal against Sevilla, the first rival he has scored 30+ goals against.

This was his performance on video:

Although doubtful at first of Barça's capacity to actually win the game, they gave me a good surprise as they not only beat them 2-0 away but also had a few chances to increase the lead. Hopefully, this match can narrow down Barcelona's lowest position this season to 3rd rather than 4th.

In the following days, Barça will meet Sevilla again, this time for the second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-finals, looking to comeback a difficult 0-2 aggregate and get a ticket for the final at Sevilla. Until then, see you in the next entry.

Messi in FPL

Fantasy Premier League, or FPL for short, is a popular game that is in the Premier League's own page. One of the key points is, well, FPL points given to each player after their performances. And so, today's topic would be about how many FPL points Messi would get if he was in FPL, so without further ado, let's get into the numbers.

Fantasy Premier League has a bit of a complicated but manageable point system: You get 4 points for each goal if you're a forward or 5 if you're a midfielder (we'll concentrate on those 2 positions because Messi could be either of those). 3 points for an assist (Opta or non-Opta), 2 points for playing over 60 minutes (1 point if it was less), and then there are bonus points for performances, which is 3 points for a MoTM, 2 points for being the 2nd best player and 1 point for being 3rd. If he were to enter as a midfielder, he would also receive 1 point per clean sheet. You also get subtracted points for yellow cards, red cards and penalty misses. With all of that in mind, let's look at what Messi's numbers would be like.

Last season in La Liga, WhoScored ran the math that he would have gotten a whopping 300 FPL points as a forward or an amazing 339 FPL points as a midfielder (actually 306 or 345 since they didn't put his two non-Opta assists). To put it into perspective, De Bruyne, who had the most FPL points in the 2019/20 Premier League season, tallied only 251, which means that Messi would dominate the competition if he was in the FPL. Even if we look at FPL's record set by Salah in the 2017/18 season, it was 303 points, which is still less than Messi's forward FPL points if we account for non-Opta assists, and way less if we consider him a midfielder.

And we're talking about perhaps one of his worst seasons in La Liga, if he looked at his prime his numbers simply wouldn't make sense, with 410 FPL points as a forward or 479 FPL points as a midfielder, a ludicrous amount that would have remained the FPL's record for long and by a huge difference.

The consensus from some FPL enthusiasts is that if Messi was on FPL, he'd be a midfielder worth £14.0 (like Ronaldo or Van Persie did once), and he'd certainly rip the competition apart as well, so most people would want to buy him and captain him on an unprecedented scale compared to other players.

Every goal is for Celia

Out of the 730 goals he has scored in his entire career, even the ones he's scored in friendlies and his La Masía days, all of them have been dedicated to Messi's maternal grandmother, Celia Olivera de Cuccittini.

She was born on May 26th 1930, daughter to Pedro Olivera and Emilia. Later, at 31, she had a daughter called María Celia Cuccittini, who then, alongside Jorge Messi, had a son (as well as 3 other siblings) called Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini. She was Messi's main inspiration for becoming a footballer all the way back in 1992 when he first joined Grandoli (he entered the club thanks to Celia's efforts).

Unfortunately, she died in 1998 when Messi was still at Newell's Old Boys, and this obviously meant a lot to Leo. After all, the biggest supporter of his dreams had just gone away, so it wasn't going to be easy to continue.

But nevertheless, he continued, finishing his time at Newell's Old Boys, going to Barcelona in mid-2000, and continued his career there until today.

Now, every time he scores a goal, he points both of his index fingers to the sky to dedicate it to Celia, the person who introduced him to the sport who he's now the greatest at, and the first person to believe in his abilities.

Still alive in the race

Yesterday, Barcelona beat Elche with a comfortable 3-0, with 2 goals from Messi and then the third goal from Alba helped by a beautiful pre-assist from Messi. Messi's stats were the following: 2 goals, 1 pre-assist, 1 big chance created, 2 SOT (3 in total), 4 dribbles, 2 key passes, 6 ground duels won, 1 foul received, 1 tackle, 7 pressures, 57 passes and 90 touches, another 10/10 performance from the GOAT. Also, according to some sources, he has equalled Romário's 728 goal tally, another step forward.

Here is a video compiling his excellent performance:

Although the first half could have been better, the second half would prove to be the wake-up call for Barça, especially after Messi's first goal. And speaking of Messi's goals, he is currently leading the Pichichi race with 18 goals, 2 ahead of Suárez, and the odds are looking good to reach his 8th Pichichi, which would be wonderful.

Barça's next game will be certainly tough, as they'll be facing Sevilla. It will be a crucial game not only because of the opponent they're facing, but also because they're only 2 points ahead with 1 more game. But until then, see you in the next entry!

Messi's milestone goals

With over 700 goals to his name, Messi has not only had the privilege to hit the 100-goal milestone, but reached it 6 more times as well afterward, an unbelievable achievement. In this entry, I'll analyze all of his milestone goals (and a bonus one) from 1st to 700th. Without further ado, let's look at the goals.

His first goal in his professional career was against Albacete in the 2004/05 La Liga season. After getting a goal wrongfully canceled for a non-existent offside, Messi received a good pass from Ronaldinho which he converted with a great chip. A marvelous start for his goalscoring reputation.

His 100th goal came more than 4 years later in the 2009/10 Champions League season against Dynamo Kyiv, where he hit a shot to the near post with a difficult angle but nailing it nonetheless. He was able to reach 100 goals before the end of the 2000s.

Less than 2 years later, he scored his 200th goal against Real Madrid in the 2011 Spanish Super Cup. After scoring a memorable goal in the first half (his 199th), his 200th goal came near the end of the game when he passed the ball to Adriano, received a cross from him and volleyed the ball inside the net, sealing the tie 5-4 as well and winning Barcelona the trophy.

A little over a year later, in October 2012, Messi scored his 300th goal against Rayo Vallecano with a powerful strike to the top angle. He later scored his 301st goal too.

His 400th goal was against Granada on September 2014, receiving a good cross which he converted with a header close to the goal. He would later score his 401st goal that same game too.

His 500th goal came against Valencia on April 2016, with a great pass to Jordi Alba being received back in the penalty spot and converting the shot.

Almost two years later, he scored his best milestone goal yet with an amazing free kick against Atlético Madrid in La Liga. Also, Atlético Madrid was just 5 points behind them in the league title charge, and with that 1-0 win Barcelona practically consolidated their league title.

Finally, he scored his 700th goal against Atlético Madrid once again two years later, this time with a panenka penalty. This has been his last 100 goal milestone so far.

As a bonus, there's his 1000 goal milestone that he technically reached against Levante in January of 2018 (counting his goals at Newell's, Barcelona's academy, friendlies, etc), where he made a great pass to Alba, who gave it back to Messi, and he made a great volley that ended in the far bottom corner of the goal.

Clearly, we're witnessing the best and greatest goalscorer of all times, and perhaps he'll even reach the 800-goal milestone as well. But until then, see you in the next blog.

Messi's first professional game

On October 16th, 2004, Messi made his professional debut with Barcelona against Espanyol in the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys. He entered in for Deco 82 minutes in while Barcelona was leading 1-0. In his previous season, he scored in 40 goals in 44 games between Juvenil B and Barcelona B, and he even played 2 friendlies with the 1st team. Another thing to note was his recent masterclass against Espanyol B which Rijkaard got noticed of, which with all the factors combined made him decide to sub him on in this game.

Only 2 minutes into the game, pressure from him caused David García to concede a throw-in. Later, Van Bronckhorst tried to cross him a ball but he was being marked and the ball went over his head. Afterwards came perhaps his best moment of the game, as Xavi passed him the ball from behind the halfwayline, held the ball, dribbled past David García, later got past Àlex and Ito (using Ito's body for a self-pass), and passed the ball to Iniesta.

From then, he didn't touch the ball until 6 minutes later. When he finally received another pass from Xavi, he completed another dribble, yet again against David García, then got rid of Àlex and left the ball for Iniesta. Half a minute later, he tried to dribble again but this time he wasn't able to. Larsson decided to pass him a good ball but it went too high for Messi and Kameni catched it. Finally, for the last play of the game he tried to dribble past Ito but wasn't able to, and that's where the game ended.

In total, he made 8 carries, 1 pass, 2/4 dribbles and 1 pressure, overall a good game from him, and he would play a couple more games in the season, even having his Champions League debut less than 2 months later.

That would be the beginning of not only Messi's prosperous career in Barcelona, but his professional career as a whole. And the rest, as they say, is history.

2 more points dropped in the last minute

Yesterday, Barcelona almost won the game to remain in the race for the title, but a last-minute penalty conceded by Lenglet slashed those hopes. Messi scored the opening goal with a penalty but it wasn't enough. His stats were the following: 1 goal, 3 SOT (8 in total), 3 dribbles, 2 key passes, 3 ground duels won, 1 aerial duel won, 1 interception, 2 pressures, 76 passes and 114 touches, which earned him yet another MoTM and also a 10/10 according to Infogol. He also reached 38 La Liga opponents scored against, quite a milestone.

If you want to see it on video, here it is:

This time, the problem was poor defending, which costed a penalty conceded at the last minute. Now they are 1 point behind Sevilla and much more away from Real Madrid, let alone Atlético Madrid.

Elche follows, and hopefully we can take the 3 points against them. Until then, see you in the next entry.

How it all started

One certain day, back in 1992, inside Club Abanderado Grandoli's stadium, Messi could be seen hitting the ball to the wall and receiving it himself in the stands, a common practice when having the ball alone. Leo had been attached to the ball back when he was only 3 years old in fact. The club was not far away from Messi's home, as there was only a 1.5 Km difference between them.

On that certain day, Grandoli had one less man, so their coach, Ricardo Aparicio, decided to approach Celia, Messi's mother, to ask her if he could play him. She was reluctant, citing the difference of age, height and his lack of experience, but his grandmother pushed the decision of making him play, and that's what happened.

According to what Aparicio said, the first ball he received went to the side of him and he watched it go, but the second time he received the ball, he received it with his left foot and dribbled past everyone, making a statement of how good he was early on. And as a fun fact, after Aparicio, his father Jorge Messi was Grandoli's coach.

People were saying that the new Maradona had been born, and Messi certainly met his expectation as his team usually won by a big difference and with a lot of goals coming from him as well, although Ramon Min, a Dutch sportswriter admin of @MessiStats_ has only been able to collect 5 goals from his time at Grandoli.

He also won a few trophies in Grandoli, one of them being this one:

One day, his father couldn't pay the entry, and therefore couldn't enter the stadium, so that would be the last time Messi wore Grandoli's shirt. After that, he moved to Newell's Old Boys, having a wonderful run, and after moving to Barcelona in September of 2000, the rest, as they say, is history.

Messi against German teams

Having gone through English and Italian teams so far, Messi also has quite a history against German teams, even having one of his most iconic moments against one.

Overall, Messi has 17 goals and 5 (6 non-Opta) assists in only 17 games (1340 minutes), an average of a goal every 78 minutes and 49 seconds (1.14 goals per 90), a G/A every 60 minutes and 55 seconds (1.48 G/A per 90), and a G/A (counting non-Opta) every 58 minutes and 16 seconds (1.54 G/A per 90). Quite a good record, in fact, it's his best record against a country out of the top 5.

His debut against a German team was against Werder Bremen in the 2005/06 Champions League season, where he won a penalty that sealed Barcelona's 2-0 victory. And his last game was Barcelona's infamous 8-2 loss against Bayern Munich in the UCL quarter-finals, where he was Barcelona's best player and better than half of Bayern's team, but it wasn't enough.

His record against Germany's strongest team by far, Bayern Munich, is quite good despite the 8-2 loss, since he has 4 goals and 2 assists in 6 games against them, including his wonderful chip in the 2014/15 Champions League semi-finals.

Clearly, Messi has no problem against German teams either, in fact, it's the opposite as it seems they're his favorite victim out of the top 5 leagues.

Messi's playmaking in 2012

Messi in 2012 was not only the best goalscorer by far, but he was also one of the best playmakers in the world, an aspect that isn't looked at much in that year due to how good his goalscoring numbers were.

In 2012, Messi made 22 assists (29 counting non-Opta) as well as averaging over 2 key passes per game (data from 50 games instead of 69) and almost 1 accurate through-ball per game. In the IFFHS Playmaker Award, he came in 3rd behind Xavi and Iniesta, a great accomplishment.

In the 2011/12 La Liga season, he had the second-most assists behind Özil, most assists via through-balls, most key passes via trough-balls (by far), second-most key passes behind Özil, 4th most accurate short passes, 5th most attempted passes, most accurate corner passes.

His milestones playmaking-wise were 4 assist braces, 7 key passes against Valencia in the 2011/12 season (same game where he scored a poker) and 4 accurate throughballs against Bayer Leverkusen.

Clearly, Messi was not only an outstanding goalscoring machine in 2012, but he was also a playmaking genius.

Debunking a Myth: Messi did nothing in the 2005/06 UCL

Some of Messi's doubters think that Messi's performance in the 2005/06 UCL was minimal, but in this entry, I'll prove he did a good job and was an important piece of the team.

In his debut against Werder Bremen, the second-best team in Germany behind Bayern Munich, he won a penalty which consolidated Barcelona's lead from 1-0 to 2-0. Later in the 4-1 win against Udinese, the best team in Italy after Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan, Messi made an amazing run from the defensive 1/3rd of the pitch all the way to close to the box where he won a foul, which Ronaldinho converted, and for the second goal, he made a tackle that lead to the play of that goal. He almost got an assist too, but Eto'o failed the 1-on-1, and there was a penalty on him not given as well. Against Panathinaikos away, he made a great pass to Eto'o but he couldn't put it inside the net. His final game in the group stage was against Panathinaikos at home, he took the mark from Nilsson which allowed for Barça's second goal, got a goal annulled, later scored the 3rd goal, pre-assisted the 4th goal, and assisted the 5th goal, an amazing performance form him.

In the knockouts, Barcelona had to face Chelsea, perhaps the best team in the world at that moment. They had also been kicked out in the last UCL by Chelsea, where Messi didn't participate. In the first leg at Stamford Bridge, his incredible game was enough to give Barcelona the victory, one of his highlights being receiving a red-card foul from Del Horno that changed the game. In the same game, Del Horno could have received a red card earlier for a horrific foul on Messi, and Messi could have won a penalty for a foul from Terry. He also hit the woodwork. He was hailed by important media for his performance. In the second leg, he, unfortunately, got injured, which sidelined him for the rest of the season, but it doesn't invalidate the fact that he was one of their best players both in the group stage and in the important R16 series against their toughest opponent in that run.

Clearly, Messi was an important piece in Barcelona's early road to the 2005/06 UCL, and even in the knockouts against the strongest team he was the best player. Therefore, Messi has 4 UCLs, being an important piece in all of them (and best player in the last 3).

The worst is yet to come

Yesterday, PSG got a comfortable win at the Camp Nou, greatly diminishing Barcelona's chances to go through in the next leg. Despite Messi scoring a penalty and creating a great chance for Dembélé shortly after, which wasn't converted, Mbappé was quick to equalize the game, and then more efforts from him and Kean were enough to settle the game 4-1 for Paris Saint-Germain. Messi's stats were: 1 goal, 1 SOT (2 in total), 2 dribbles, 3 key passes, 1 big chance created, 4 ground duels won, 1 foul received, 1 tackle, 1 long ball, 1 cross, 42 passes and 66 touches, which was enough to make him the second-best player in the game behind Mbappé.

The result could be seen from the beginning, seeing how PSG did against Barcelona's defense in the first minutes of the game, but after Messi converted his penalty, Dembélé's goal right after could have been crucial to preventing the loss that Barça suffered afterward. And this was the home game, so the away game will probably be even worse.

Next game is against Cádiz, and the priority once again shifts to securing at least a 2nd place finish in the league. But until then, see you in the next blog!

Messi playing video games

Not only is he great at playing football in real life, but he's also good in the virtual world, having played games like FIFA multiple times in his spare time, having stated that he likes playing FIFA on his Play Station.

Back in 2012, before his game against Mallorca, he played FIFA on the Play Station alongside Marc Muniesa against another pair. He and Marc ended up as Champions of the Play Tournament. A day later, Messi scored and got a non-Opta assist against Mallorca, winning the MoTM. This shows how good he is both virtually and in real life at football.

He also plays FIFA with Thiago Messi, his son. Considering that Messi has said that Thiago loves to play videogames, we can assume that they play against each other often when Leo is at home. One recorded instance was back in 2017 when they both played FIFA 18 and Thiago either picked Real Madrid while Leo picked Barcelona or they both played on the same team.

He has also called himself "the king" when he plays FIFA on his Play Station against his team-mates back in 2015. And he also played a FIFA 15 tournament against his Barça team-mates back in 2014, where his team tied the first game 3-3 but later won the second game 1-0 on a Golden Goal rule (coincidentally the goal was made by FIFA Messi).

And finally, there's old footage of him playing PES 07 with one of the conductors of the show "Argentinos por su nombre" called Andy Kusnetzoff, and then against Agüero too.

Barcelona before and after Messi

Before Messi came to Barcelona, they definitely weren't the club that they are now. In this entry, I'll concentrate on what they've won since Messi came to the club, and how they were before he came. Without further ado, let's dive into the topic.

Before Messi's debut, Barcelona only had 1 UCL, won in the 1991/92 season. But then, in Messi's second professional season, they won their second UCL, then a third in 2008/09, a fourth in 2010/11, and a fifth in 2014/15, with Messi being the main man in the last 3 and an important piece in the first one. This is definitely the most notable difference from Barcelona before and after Messi came. And continuing with the UCLs, they won their first 3 Club World Cups with Messi, as well as 3/5 of their UEFA Super Cups.

Domestically, they had 16 La Liga titles before Messi came, and they now have 26, another massive increase caused by Messi as well. Their Copa del Rey cabinet went from 24 to 30 trophies, and they doubled their Supercopa de España tally from 8 to 16.

Overall, Barcelona had 62 trophies before Messi came, without having won one since 1999, but when Messi came in the 2004/05 season, they started winning trophies again, and now have 96 trophies. So in conclusion, since Messi came to Barcelona, they have gotten exponentially better since.

Another day in the office

Messi's performance yesterday against Alavés was crucial in Barcelona's victory, earning another vital 3 points. Trincão was the first to score, which was followed by a weak foot goal from Messi which was wrongfully disallowed for a non-existent offside. That wasn't enough to deter him so he scored an amazing goal near the end of the first half. In the second half, Messi assisted a goal to Trincão, scored an even better goal with a banger to the top bin, and he finally pre-assisted Firpo's final goal of the game. These were his stats: 2 goals, 1 assist, 1 pre-assist, 1 big chance created, 5 SOT (7 in total), 1 dribble, 3 key passes, 4 ground duels won, 3 fouls received, 5 pressures, 1 long ball, 1 cross, 58 passes, and 96 touches, worthy of not only a MoTM but also a 10/10 performance.

If you want to look at what Messi did, here it is:

Barcelona keep their good form in La Liga, crucial to achieving a second-place finish, and the clinical attribute was clearly seen in this game. But it's calm before the storm, because our next game will be against PSG in the UEFA Champions League R16 first leg at the Camp Nou, a tough challenge.

Hopefully, we can get a good result against them, but we'll have to see. Until then, see you in the next entry.

Messi doesn't even need to touch the ball to be brilliant

While Messi's best moments are with the ball at his feet, he doesn't even need that to help his team greatly. So without further ado, let's look at some of Messi's off the ball movement and skills without touching the ball.

Something great about him is that he tends to know when he's offside, and as he has shown, he's too smart to fall for an offside trap. When defenders expected him to touch the ball, he simply looked at it and let it continue its path. He did so against APOEL in the 2014/15 UCL season, leading to one of his 3 weak foot goals, Barcelona's 4th goal against Granada in the 2015/16 La Liga season (having made a hat-trick beforehand too), Barcelona's 2nd goal against Atlético Madrid in the 2011/12 season (which ended in a 5-0 victory with a hat-trick from him), etc.

There's also his body feints. I will limit myself to show you an 11-minute video showing over 100 examples of Messi's body feints. Another skill that Messi has managed to master.

And now into his off-the-ball movement. This specific thing was exploited back when he was a false 9 (previously explained). In summary, he either had a player mark him and liberate space for Messi's team-mates, or Messi ran havoc with no one marking him. Even today, he still does this, though not to the same extent. The following video explains what Messi used to do with his movement off the ball:

This video explains stupendously how good Messi really is without the ball:

Genes of the best

Thiago Messi, although very young (8 years old), has shown some potential and has been taking his father's footsteps. How has he been doing so far? This entry will tell you.

Unlike Leo, Thiago's strong foot is his right, as we can see from some of his videos. And although Leo said that he didn't like football too much, preferring video games instead, he has started to show more interest, and he still has a natural talent for it just like his father. He also wears the Nº 10 shirt.

He's currently playing for Barcelona Escola, specifically Escola Sergio (in honor to Busquets) and has shown to have some skills, as a video from early 2020 playing against Semedo's team showed how after receiving a pass, he ran through in the box and shot with his strong foot towards the goal, nailing it. There's also a video of him scoring a brace against the same team, Escola Semedo, one of them with a fake shot to get rid of a defender then score, and the second one being a strong finish to end the game 9-2. It's also worthy to note that most of the time Antonella and even Leo himself watch Thiago train/play with Barcelona Escola too.

For his training schedule, he had two days of training a week and then a game on Sunday afternoons. The training method being a series of progressive and interrelated exercises, adapted to each training level or stage (there are 3, which are Beginners age 6-8, Pre-training age 8-10, and Training age 10-12). They also teach him important values like humility, effort, ambition, respect, and teamwork.

He plays alongside Milán Piqué, Gerrard's son, and used to play with Benjamín Suárez before Luis' departure from the club this season to Atlético Madrid, so that's another bonus for him as well.

What he will become, only the future will tell. But until then, see you in the next entry.

Now we need a miracle

In Messi's 900th career game, Barcelona lost 2-0 to Sevilla away with goals from Koundé and Rakitic. Messi's stats were the following: 4 SOT (7 in total), 4 dribbles, 1 key pass, 9 ground duels won, 4 fouls received, 1 tackle, 1 interception, 2 long balls, 2 crosses, 55 passes, and 95 touches in total. Barcelona's best player, and perhaps the best player in the match as well.

Even though it wasn't "one of those nights" for him, we can still see how good he was in the game in this video:

Missing big chances wasn't the problem in this game, it was the awful defense, which was made clear in Sevilla's first goal as Koundé managed to dribble past some players and score. Despite Barcelona playing good for a while in the game, it didn't translate into goals and we now need a miracle at the Camp Nou to go to the Copa del Rey final.

Alavés will be our next rival in La Liga, and after that, PSG in the UEFA Champions League. Let's see how we manage to do. Until then, see you in the next entry.

The best performance in every UCL stage

To further consolidate the fact that Messi is the best UCL player of all times, I will dedicate this entry to Messi's best performance in each stage, which also happens to be the best in the competition's history. Without further ado, let's look at those performances.

First off is the group stage. His memorable performance against Manchester City in the 2016/17 season, getting a hat-trick, 1 assist, 1 big chance created, 1 penalty won (which Neymar missed), 5 dribbles, and 3 key passes.

Getting now into the knockout stages, Messi's re-poker against Bayer Leverkusen in the 2011/12 season is his best performance in the Ro16, getting 1 dribble and 1 key pass as well. He also happens to have the best goal-less UCL Ro16, dropping an assist, 10 dribbles, 5 key passes, and a memorable nutmeg on Milner against Manchester City in the 2014/15 season.

For the QF, he has his poker against Arsenal in the 2009/10 season, getting 5 dribbles and 2 key passes too.

In the semi-finals, we all remember his masterclass against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in the 2010/11 season, not only getting two goals (one of them a work of art), but also 9 dribbles and 3 key passes. There's also his performance against Bayern Munich in the 2014/15 season, with 2 goals, 1 assist, 2 big chances created, 9 dribbles, and 4 key passes.

And for the final, there's his wonderful performance against Manchester United in the 2010/11 season, not only scoring a great outside-the-box shot but getting 10 dribbles and 4 key passes as well.

Clearly, there is a lot more to Messi in the UCL than what most see, and looking at these performances, you can tell that Messi is the one true king of the UCL.

Messi's performances in the UEFA Super Cup

Messi has won 3 UEFA Super Cups, being crucial most of the time, which is why I will show you in this entry how good he did in every edition he played in. Without further ado, let's look at his performances.

His first performance was against Sevilla in the 2006 UEFA Super Cup. Unfortunately, Sevilla won 3-0, and there wasn't much Messi could do.

Then came the 2009 UEFA Super Cup against Shakhtar Donetsk. This time, he assisted Pedro's goal in extra-time to win the trophy. This would be their 5th trophy out of 6 that they won in 2009.

The next edition Messi would play in was in 2011. He first scored a goal and then assisted Fàbregas for the second and last goal of the game. This obviously won him the MVP Award.

The last time he played in the UEFA Super Cup was against Sevilla in 2015. He scored Barcelona's first two goals, both coming from amazing free kicks, to counter Banega's early goal. After the game went to extra-time, Pedro would take advantage of a rebound from Messi's shot to score the winning goal. All in all, a perfect 10/10 that won him another MVP Award.

As we can see, Messi steps up more often than not in the UEFA Super Cup as well, another point for Messi when it comes to big games.