Messi's UCL campaign has unfortunately ended at the hands of PSG, who Barça had great trouble with in the first leg and couldn't compensate in the second leg. Still, it's pretty clear that Messi was the best player in the competition until that point, and I'll prove it by showing his performances.
First, I'll look at his performances per game. In his debut against Ferencvárosi, he first scored a penalty to give Barça the lead, having made an amazing run before earning the penalty. He then pre-assisted Coutinho's 3-0 goal, pre-assisted Pedri's 4-1, and finally assisted Dembélé's 5-1 goal. A 10/10 game from him.
In his second game, against Juventus, he first assisted Dembélé's goal with a great long pass, and then he scored via penalty to end the game 2-0 in Barça's favor. Another 10/10 for him.
In his 3rd game, now against Dynamo Kyiv, he scored a penalty to give Barcelona the lead, and for Piqué's goal, he made a recovery, then made a good pass to De Jong who was unmarked, who then passed the ball to Fati who crossed the ball to Piqué, who scored Barça's 2-0 that ended in a 2-1 victory. A 9.71 according to Infogol.
In his final game of the group stage against Juventus, although Barcelona lost 3-0, he was still the best player on the pitch. I already made an entry about the game, so I won't go into details, but I will add that he got a 9.92 from Infogol, so almost a 10/10 performance despite his team losing by a big margin.
Entering the knockout stages facing PSG, Messi did a good performance with his penalty goal, a 7.7 performance from Fotmob, but unfortunately it wasn't enough and Barça lost 4-1. I also made an entry about this game so there's a more detailed explanation of his performance.
And in the second leg, his missile goal from outside the box wasn't enough to win Barça the tie or even the game, as they tied 1-1 and got kicked out of the competition, unfortunately. I made the entry about the game yesterday, so you can check for yourself.
Now, let's look at his stats overall:
Goalscoring
He scored 5 goals, though only 1 was a non-penalty goal (but at the same time it was a missile and may be nominated for the Puskás Award). He made 37 shots overall, giving him a conversion rate of 13.51%. Out of those 37 shots, 20 were on target, 6 were off target, and 11 were blocked, an accuracy rate of 54.05%. He, unfortunately, hit the woodwork once as well. In terms of xG according to FBref, he underperformed by 1.5, but according to Infogol, he underperformed by only 0.95.
Playmaking
He had 2 assists in the tournament, creating 4 big chances and giving 23 key passes as well. He also made 56 SCA and 7 GCA.
In terms of passing, he made 384 passes, 345 in the opponent's half and 46 in his team's half, 373 short and 11 long, 125 forward, 223 sideways and 85 backward, 7 crosses (3 from open play and 4 from corners), and with an accuracy of 88.68%. Via passing, he made 45 SCA and 4 GCA.
Dribbling
He made 33 successful dribbles out of 54 (success rate of 61.1%), dribbling past 35 players and getting 1 nutmeg as well. He made 5 SCA and 1 GCA via dribbling too.
Defense and duels
In terms of defensive activities, he made 6 tackles (2 in the middle 3rd and 4 in the attacking 3rd), 2 interceptions, 1 pass blocked, 62 pressures (1 in the defensive 3rd, 26 in the middle 3rd, and 35 in the attacking 3rd, 19 were successful).
As for duels, he contested 95. 2 of those were aerial, which he unfortunately couldn't win on either case, and 93 were ground duels, where he won 46 (49.46% success rate).
Average ratings
WhoScored: 8.51
SofaScore: 8.23
Fotmob: 8.75
FootballCritic: 8.66~
Infogol: 9.25
Opta Performance Index: 95/100
Clearly, he had a great performance, but it was cut short by a strong rival early on. I hoped you liked my analysis of Messi's performance on the 2020/21 UCL, and as always, I'll see you in the next entry.
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