Messi scored to give Barça the lead, but unfortunately, Granada made a comeback in the second half and won 2-1 in the Camp Nou. Despite dominating the entire game, Granada took their chances while Barcelona couldn't materialize more than 1 goal. Messi's stats were: 1 goal, 2 SoT (6 in total), 0.77 xG, 3 dribbles out of 5, 2 key passes, 6 SCA, 0.4 xA, 9 duels won out of 15, 6 fouls won, 2 ball recoveries, 1 successful pressure out of 3, 1 long ball, 2 crosses, 72 passes out of 88, and 109 touches, which was a MoTM performance and even a 10/10 according to Infogol. This was his performance on video:
Here are some fun facts after the game:
Granada became the 17th team to concede 15+ goals from Messi, the 20th team to concede 19 G/A from him, and the 16th team Messi has played 15+ games against.
Messi scored his 470th La Liga goal.
Messi surpassed Raúl García and he's now the 7th player with most games played in La Liga.
Messi surpassed Joaquín and he's now the 9th player with the most minutes played in La Liga.
Messi is now tied with Carmelo Cedrún in 19th place for the most games completed in La Liga.
This loss has hurt Barça's title chances, but there is still hope with some games left in the league. The Pichichi seems to be sealed, though, but the main priority is La Liga. Hopefully, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid drop points, while Barça wins all of their remaining games left. But until then, I'll see you in the next blog.
The Messi Store is, as described in Messi's official website, it's a "direct reflection of the qualities Leo Messi demonstrates on and off the pitch: we specialize in creating innovative, premium lifestyle clothing with high quality and precision detail in every stitch. We strive for excellence, precision, and humility in everything we do.", so as we can see, they take the brand very seriously and pay very close attention to it. The official link to the store is themessistore.com.
The Messi Store began in 2016, when, as explained by the official site, "a global network of passionate and creative individuals—from Rosario, Argentina to New York City, London and Barcelona— expressed a shared vision and began laying the blueprint for The Messi Store: a lifestyle clothing brand where fashion meets function. Together, the international team set forth to create a brand identity that would reflect Leo’s own aim for precision both on and off the pitch.".
The Messi Store also has an Instagram account, a Facebook account, and a Youtube account. It can even be downloaded via App Store or Google Play. It's Important to say that in both cases the app has 5 stars. And if the customer has problems, there's obviously an FAQ section to help.
To end this entry, Ginny Hilfiger, creative director of The Messi Store, said that the goal is to "stay true to Leo and push the boundaries of what it means to be a world famous soccer icon and athlete who inspires on and off the field with a cool and classical sense of fashion. Our designs are meant to be effortless and accessible to all.", a good message to send to customers.
That is all for today, so I hope you liked this entry and I'll see you in the next blog.
It's time to make part 2 of this series, showing even more amazing goals that were almost scored by Messi. There's a plethora of these plays so it will probably be very long, so without further ado, let's get into some more would-have-been goals.
The first one we'll be seeing in this entry happened against Levante in the 2010-11 La Liga season. He made a great solo effort, dribbling past some players and getting into the box, but his shot unfortunately hit the post.
Not long after, in September of 2011, he played against Nigeria in a friendly. In that game, he stole a ball from a rival in the halfway line and ran to the box, dribbling past some players in between, and shot on target, which the keeper saved, but Di María scored in the rebound.
Next up is a game against Las Palmas at home in the 2016-17 La Liga season. Once again, Messi came close to scoring an Olympic goal, but it was saved by the keeper near the goal-line.
In 2012, Messi played a qualifier game for the 2014 World Cup against Uruguay at home. He made a great run, getting past some players and shooting the ball over the keeper, but it hit the crossbar and went out.
And last but not least, in a game against Viktoria Plzen at home in the 2010-11 Champions League season, he made a run to the box dribbling past a player and going past 2 players on the floor. He finished the play with a chip shot which unfortunately hit the post and went to a goal kick.
That's all for the 2nd part. I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.
April 27th, 2011. Real Madrid and Barça faced each other in the 2010/11 UCL semifinal. Barcelona wanted revenge from the recent Copa del Rey final loss against them, and all eyes were on Messi to deliver.
The rest, as they say, is history. Messi scored one of the greatest goals of all times at the Bernabéu dribbling past half of Real Madrid's team starting a little over the halfway line, as well as scoring with his right foot. Diarra, Ramos, Arbeloa, Marcelo and Casillas were no match for Messi's brilliant play that consolidated Barcelona's win 2-0. The previous goal came from himself after he tapped in a good cross from Afellay.
His stats from the game were the following: 2 goals, 3 key passes, 2 SoT (4 in total), 9 dribbles out of 12, 2 fouls won, 2 shots blocked, 2 through-balls, 53 passes out of 58, and 87 touches. A 10/10 performance from the GOAT. This was his performance on video:
This ended up being crucial since they tied 1-1 in the second leg at the Camp Nou, qualifying them for the final. And on the final itself... everyone knows what happened. This remains one of Messi's best games ever, with one of the best goals ever, and perhaps the best UCL goal ever, being scored coincidentally by the best player ever. I hoped you liked this entry and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.
Yesterday, Barcelona beat Villarreal 2-1 away, some important 3 points in the race for La Liga. Chukwueze gave Villarreal the lead but Griezmann quickly comebacked the game with a brace in 7 minutes. Messi's stats were: 1 SoT (3 in total), 5 dribbles out of 7, 3 SCA, 0.09 xA, 8 duels won out of 16, 6 fouls received (1 red card, 1 yellow card), 1 tackle, 4 successful pressures out of 18, 1 long ball, 44 passes out of 49 and 69 touches. A good 7.3 performance according to Infogol which helped in Barça's victory, especially with the red-card foul he received. This was his performance on video:
The 6 fouls he received today was the highest amount he received in La Liga this season. And continuing on the subject, he received a nasty foul from Manu Trigueros which could have seriously hurt him, but he got back up in about a minute. Not long after he also received a hit to the face.
Barcelona still only rely on themselves to win La Liga, Messi still leads in the Pichichi as well as being tied for the most assists in the league, which could land him the MVP too. So all in all, it's going good, and form must be kept if we want to keep dreaming. But until then, I'll see you in the next blog.
It's now time for the 4th installment of this series. There's not much else to say so I will proceed to show even more refereeing decisions made against Messi.
First up, we'll be starting with a game from the 2011/12 season. This was against Getafe away. A goal from Messi is canceled due to an offside from Keita, but the reality is that Míchel (a Getafe player) gave the ball to Keita, which cancels the offside and makes the goal valid.
The next error is his wrongfully disallowed goal against Roma (home) in the 2015/16 Champions League season. The linesman said that Neymar was offside, but as it can be seen in this picture, he wasn't. He then assisted Messi's goal before the play was invalidated.
For the 3rd error, we're going back to the 2014/15 season against Celta away. Messi made a great run and dribbled past the goalkeeper to score, but the play was canceled due to an offside. But as it can be seen in the picture, he's not offside.
Next up is his disallowed goal against Getafe away in the 2008/09 season. Messi scores after a rebound form the goalkeeper but it's called off due to an offside. In the video, it can be seen that he's level with the Getafe defender, so it was wrongfully dissallowed.
And for last, in an international friendly in 2013 against Sweden he made a good touch and chipped the ball over the goalkeeper, who cleared the ball with a bicycle kick, but as it can be seen in the video, the ball went in.
That's all I have for this part, and as a side note, since I don't have any more disallowed goals, for the next parts I'll count aggressions on Messi not sanctioned or penalties not given due to fouls on Messi. I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.
With the recent European Super League and Getafe game, I wasn't able to detail what Messi's performance in the Copa del Rey was like. Fortunately, now that all is over, I will detail what he did on this entry.
Second are the statistics, which are the following:
Goalscoring
He scored 3 goals, all from open play. He made 35 shots overall, giving him a conversion rate of 8.57%. Out of those 35 shots, 17 were on target, 5 were off target, and 13 were blocked, an accuracy rate of 48.57%. He also hit the woodwork three times.
Playmaking
He had 1 assist in the tournament, creating 1 big chances and giving 18 key passes as well.
In terms of passing, he made 308 passes, 298 short and 10 long, 141 forward, 167 sideways and 59 backward, 6 crosses, and with an accuracy of 83.92%.
Dribbling
He made 37 successful dribbles out of 48 (success rate of 77.08%).
Defense and duels
In terms of defensive activities, he made 4 tackles and 1 interception.
As for duels, he contested 94. 1 of those was aerial, which he unfortunately lost, and 93 were ground duels, where he won 62 (66.67% success rate).
Miscellaneous
He made 559 touches, which was almost 100 touches per 90, having made 98.6 per 90. He also made 9 ball recoveries, won 21 fouls, and received 2 yellow cards. Below is his heat map in the Copa del Rey season.
Average ratings
SofaScore: 8.76
Fotmob: 8.81
FootballCritic: 8.2
Opta Performance Index: 95/100
Clearly, he was the best player in the tournament and gave his best for Barça to win the title.
With every game left in La Liga being taken as a final, winning is always vital for the La Liga race. Messi shook the crossbar early on and it hit the line, but a few minutes later he scored after making a run and shooting the top opposite angle. Lenglet scored an own goal to tie the scoreline 1-1, but Chakla then scored an own goal to give Barça the lead. Messi then made a good volley with his right foot which hit the post, then scored on the rebound. In the second half, Getafe got closer thanks to a penalty from Ünal, but a goal from Araújo assisted via corner by Messi and a penalty in the last minute from Griezmann (which Messi gifted him despite the fact he's in the Pichichi race and would've meant a hat-trick) sealed things up and gave Barça the 5-2 win.
Messi's stats were the following: 2 goals, 1 assist, 1 penalty gifted, 4 SoT, 2 woodworks, 7 shots in total, 0.59 xG, 2 dribbles out of 4, 1 key pass, 4 SCA, 0.5 xA, 7 duels won out of 10, 4 fouls received, 1 tackle, 3 ball recoveries, 4 successful pressures out of 9, 2 long balls, 1 cross, 47 passes and 73 touches, which was a 10/10 performance that won him the King of the Match. This was his performance on video:
Another 3 important points in the last competition left to play for. If Barcelona win every single La Liga game they have left, they will win the league, so Barça depend on themselves. Though of course it would be great if Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid dropped points to make the process easier.
There were also some fun facts about this game in terms of Messi's stats, which are:
Messi is the first player in the history of the top5 leagues to scores 25+ goals in 12 seasons in a row.
Getafe became the 12th team to concede 20+ goals from Messi.
Araujo became the 51st Barça player to receive an assist from Messi.
Araujo became the 16th Barça defender to receive an assist from Messi.
Messi's 9 assists in La Liga this season went to 9 different teammates: Lenglet De Jong Trincao Dembélé Ilaix Alba Mingueza Dest Araujo
It was the 150th game in Messi's career in which he scored AND assisted.
For the first time in his career, Messi gave assists to 5 different defenders in a single Liga season: Lenglet Alba Dest Mingueza Araujo.
Messi has given at least 9 assists in each of the last 14 Liga seasons.
With his 2 goals and 1 assist, Messi has now been directly involved in 150+ goals against teams from the community of Madrid. 108 goals and 44 assists.
For the first time in his career, Messi has scored 2+ goals in 7 of his first 15 Liga games of the calendar year.
The game was Messi's 100th Liga game against teams from the Community of Madrid. He's scored 85 goals and given 37 assists.
It also appears he gave his shirt to Chakla, the Getafe player who scored an own goal, after the end of the game. Hopefully Messi's great form continues in the following games so Barça can win the title. But until then, I'll see you in the next blog.
The hashtag #OnlyMessiHasMore always comes true when you look at most statistics. Although he currently doesn't lead in goals or assists, he still leads in other important categories ahead of anyone else in the top 5 leagues this season.
In terms of shots, he has the most shots in total (153), shots per 90 (5.75), shots on target (71), and shots on target per 90 (2.67) in the top 5 leagues, showing that he always tries hard to score, and recently he's been very good at it. Ronaldo follows him in 3/4 categories except for SoT per 90, where Muriel is 2nd.
Then there's passing, where Messi leads in numerous categories. These are: Passes into penalty area (119), progressive passes (258), through balls (22), shot-creating actions (197), goal-creating actions (32), and pass targets (2370). That's a total of 6 categories that Messi leads. He's followed by different players depending on the categories, like Bruno Fernandes, KDB, TAA, Müller, and Nzonzi.
Finally, there's carries, which is the number of times a player has controlled the ball with their feet. He has the most progressive carries with 411, and the most carries into the final third, with 146. He's followed by De Paul in both of these categories.
Clearly, although he's not at his peak anymore, he still clearly dominates numerous categories. And still, some people call him "finished", showing how immense his standards are. Anyways, as always, I'll see you in the next blog.
After all the fuss in the previous days about the European Super League, it appears it has now been suspended after the Big 6 from England, Atlético Madrid, and soon enough AC Milan and Inter Milan have left the competition. Barcelona hasn't made a decision yet and will leave it up for a socio vote. So although Messi technically is still in the competition since Barça hasn't left it, the competition is suspended so it most likely won't be played in the next season. Real Madrid and Juventus haven't left yet either, remaining as the only 3 clubs left standing in the competition.
All will continue as usual in the next season then, with Messi playing in the competitions he's always played including the UCL.
There is not much else to report, since Messi hasn't said anything about the competition yet, only a Gatorade ad, an announcement of his new Adidas Nemeziz boots, and an OrCam ad. With nothing else, to say, as always, I'll see you in the next blog.
As I promised yesterday, today I will do an entry detailing Messi's statistics against the founding members of the European Super League, minus Barcelona of course. I will divide this into sections to make it more simple.
The first section are the Spanish clubs, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid. I have already detailed Messi's paternity over Real Madrid, with 26 goals and 14 assists in 45 games. Against Atlético Madrid, he's scored 32 goals and made 5 assists in 42 games against them. It makes for a total of 58 goals and 19 assists in 87 games.
Now onto English clubs. I already made a detailed entry about Messi's stats against the Big 6, which can be found here. In total, he has scored 26 goals and gave 6 assists in only 34 games. Another section where Messi has no problem.
And for last, there's the Italian teams: Juventus, AC Milan, and Inter Milan. I did a detailed entry about Messi's stats against all Italian teams he's faced,w which can be found here. Against AC Milan, he has 8 goals and 2 assists in only 8 games, then Juventus, who he has 3 goals and 1 assist against in 7 games, and finally Inter Milan, with 0 goals and 1 assist in 4 games.
In total, he has scored 95 goals and given 29 assists in only 140 to European Super League teams, more than Ronaldo, his closest competitor. So if the tournament is confirmed, we already have a "Mr. European Super League". But until then, I'll see you in the next blog.
With yesterday's announcement, 12 founding members have confirmed the creation of the European Super League, with Barcelona being one of them. UEFA and FIFA have strongly rejected this tournament, so its future is uncertain.
All the information about the competition can be found on their website thesuperleague.com, both the new format of the competition and who the 12 founding clubs are. They expect another 3 to come later and 5 to qualify for the competition. According to some sources, it would start in the next season.
There have been threats by UEFA to all the clubs involved, one of the most harsh ones being the ban of all their players from their national teams. This would mean that Messi wouldn't play the 2022 World Cup or perhaps the 2021 Copa América as well.
This news is all around the globe now, and we may be in front of a new era of football. I will do an entry tomorrow detailing Messi's stats against all of the 12 (minus Barcelona) founding members of the ESL. So until then, I'll see you in the next entry.
Yesterday, Barça was crowned Copa del Rey champions after beating Athletic Bilbao by a convincing 4-0 victory. Barcelona dominated the game, with a big chance created by Messi to De Jong hitting the post early on in the game, but there were no goals until the hour mark when Messi pre-assisted Griezmann's opener. De Jong quickly made it 2-0, and then Messi unleashed himself as he made a similar goal to the 2015 Copa del Rey final, running from behind the half way line, going to the sideline, went past a Bilbao player and ran to the attacking 3rd of the pitch, passed the ball to De Jong, got it back, passed the ball to De Jong again, and received a good through-ball, where he later got past a Bilbao player and shot it nicely to the far bottom post. After that great goal, Messi got his brace after Alba passed him the ball inside the box and Messi one-shot it into the near post.
His stats were the following: 2 goals, 1 pre-assist, 1 big chance created, 3 SoT (3 in total), 2 dribbles (4 attempted), 2 key passes, 6 ground duels won (out of 11), 3 fouls won, 1 tackle, 4 long balls (out of 4), 2 crosses attempted, 45 passes (out of 50), and 74 touches, which won him the MVP for the final. This was his performance on video:
This is his 35th (or 36th if the Olympic gold medal is counted) title in his professional career. He's also beaten Giggs for the record of most titles won with a single club. Another trophy to his massive collection, and looking onwards for more. Other records broken include: Most goals in Copa del Rey finals, beating Zarra's 8 with 9 goals - Most Copa del Rye finals played in, beating Gainza's record of 9 with 10 played yesterday (shared with Busquets) - Most goals scored in finals, beating Pelé's 29 goals with 31 goals to his name in finals - Most consecutive seasons with 30+ club goals (top5 leagues players), beating Gerd Müller's 12 consecutive seasons with 13 - Quickest brace in regular time of a Copa del Rey final, the previous record was Zuazo in only 10 minutes, but Messi did it in a span of 4 minutes.
There were also records equaled, which include: Most Copa del Rey titles, equalling Gainza's and Belauste's 7 (shared with Busquets and Piqué) - Most braces in Copa del Rey finals, equalling Campanal's 2 braces in separate Copa del Rey finals. As we can see, Messi broke and equaled a lot of records with his Copa del Rey final win yesterday.
After the end of the game, Messi took a picture with various teammates holding the trophy, queueing up just for a picture with the GOAT. Another testament to his greatness and popularity.
Revenge has been taken from the Supercopa de España final three months ago, and now, the focus shifts to La Liga once again. The race between Atlético Madrid, Real Madrid and Barcelona is very heated and equal, so it's vital to win every game from now on. Next games are Getafe at home and Villarreal away.
I will do an entry detailing Messi's performance in the Copa del Rey soon enough, but until then, I'll see you in the next blog.
May 30th, 2015. Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona face each other for the Copa del Rey final. Nearly 100.000 people in the stands are watching. It's 19:29 on the clock, they're both tied 0-0, and Messi received the ball a few meters ahead of the halfway line. We all know the rest, but let's analyze what's perhaps the best goal in the history of football.
Thanks to ESPN's works, we know the following: When he received the ball, he went from 0 MPH to 19.5 MPH in only 2.73 seconds, which is comparable with an American Football speedster, like Jamal Charles for example, all with the ball at his feet and close to him as well. He then deaccelerated and made 3 short touches to get rid of 2 Bilbao players in a matter of 1.2 seconds. After Mikel Rico unsuccessfully tried to mark him, Messi entered the box for the final part of the play.
There, he made an inside-out move to get rid of Laporte, and finally, he hit the ball from 14 yards out to the near post with his left foot, going at a velocity of 48 MPH. The ball missed the keeper's hand by less than 6 inches, and entered the net for the opener of the game. His margin of error for his lateral aim was 0.75 degrees, or 1.5 mm, which means he hit the perfect spot with a margin of error with a width of a blade of grass.
The play lasted 11.4 seconds and covered almost 60 yards, but even then, the ball was off Messi by 2+ feet only twice for a total of less than 2 seconds. 7 minutes after that goal, he created a big chance for Piqué, but he couldn't convert it. Later, he passed the ball for Rakitic, who gave it to Suárez who then assisted the goal to Neymar, and in the second half, and made his second goal in the second half. Barcelona ended up winning the final 3-1, and Messi was the MVP of the game. It was their 2nd trophy out of 5 that they won that year.
It was obviously nominated for the Puskás Award, but because Brazilian fans raided the fan votes, Wendell Lira won the award undeservedly. Still, the goal will be remembered for ages, and some even consider it the best goal of all times, the author fittingly being the Greatest of All Times.
Hopefully, something similar happens tomorrow. But until then, I'll see you in the next blog
With over 900 games played, it comes as no surprise that Messi has played in a lot of locations all around the world, which is what this entry is about. There hasn't been a continent Messi hasn't played on (excluding Antarctica of course).
Fortunately, we know everything about every location Messi has played in officially thanks to https://messi.starplayerstats.com/en/world. A total of 688 games of his 912 games have been in Spain, so 224 have been outside of Spain. That's a 75/25 % of games played inside and outside of Spain.
Only 36 games have been in Argentina, with an amazing 21 goals and 15 assists, quite the record. In Oceania, he's only played twice, which were a friendly against Australia back in 2007 and a Superclásico de las Américas friendly against Brazil in 2017.
Although a sort of short entry, it's still interesting to know in which places Messi has played all throughout his career.
Here we are once again with another part of Messi vs the referees. There's not much to say, so I'll get on with some more refereeing errors done against Messi.
The first one we'll see is his poorly annulled goal against Levante in the 2015/16 league season. As it can be seen in the video, Messi was clearly not offside, but the goal was still canceled. It was at the beginning of the game when they were tied 0-0, but they later won 2-0.
The next one is another goal wrongfully canceled against Levante, this time in the 2014/15 league season. Messi was once again clearly onside as it can be seen in the video.
The 3rd error we'll be seeing in this part came in the same season, this time against Elche in the Copa del Rey. In the video, it can be seen that he's onside. Thankfully, they passed the round and then went on to win the Copa del Rey.
Next up, there's his canceled goal against Albacete in the 2004/05 season, which would have been the first goal in his career. In the photo, it can be seen that he wasn't offside, but fortunately, he scored shortly after.
And last but not least, it's his canceled goal against Deportivo La Coruña in the 2014/15 season. It can be seen in the video that he wasn't offside. The game ended up in a 2-2 draw with 2 goals from Messi.
That is all for the 3rd part of this series. I hoped you liked it, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.
Considering his stay at Newell's over, Messi looked to sign for a new club. One of the big teams that was interested in him was River Plate, and in August of 2000, he made some tryouts with the team.
He was originally scouted by ex-River Plate defender Federico Vairo, who told some people in the club and that's where the interest came from. For three days, he played for River's "pre-novena", and from the beginning, he showed his magic to everyone.
On his first day in the tryouts, a Tuesday, he entered on a Universidad de Buenos Aires field, few meters away from the Monumental. At 3 PM, the first practice started, and at 3:45 PM, he was called in by Eduardo Abrahamian, the coach. It's said that in the first few minutes he entered, he dazzled everyone. He scored an astounding 16 goals in this training. At 5 PM, the coach called Messi's father and cited Messi for the next practice.
On Wednesday, he was cited for the practice at 2 PM, and the practice started at 3 PM. He once again dazzled everyone and was called for a practice on Friday at 5 PM.
Finally, on Friday, he entered the Monumental with his father and his friend Gimnénez. He was paired up with Gonzalo Higuaín for this training, who he later shared teams with once again years later on the national team. At 5 PM, the practice ended, and he returned to Rosario at 6 PM. His friend, Giménez, ended up signing for River Plate.
Despite some attempts by Vairo and Abrahamian to tell the higher-ups to sign Messi, neither Delem (a River Plate icon) nor the other higher-ups took much importance. Although the reasons for not signing him are still being debated, what's true is that he wasn't signed by River Plate, and he ended up signing for Barcelona a few months later.
After an amazing 2010/11 season, winning the Champions League and La Liga as well as being the best player in both tournaments, Messi received a staggering rise in popularity, so much so that he was one of the candidates of the 2011 TIME Person of the Year.
His entry in the voting talked about how he was the best player of his generation, his amazing season at Barcelona, his 200-goal milestone for Barcelona, and his importance to football by making it more commercially appealing and successful. These factors were enough to get him nominated.
In the end, Messi received 74.415 votes, around 15.7% of the total amount of votes, which got him second in the voting behind Erdoğan, Turkey's Prime Minister, with 122.934 votes. Not only that, but he had the best average in terms of popularity/unpopularity since Erdoğan received 180.564 votes as the most unpopular person according to TIME's readers. This means that he was both incredibly popular and very uncontroversial as well.
All in all, it was a very impressive achievement to see how far he got into the voting, which magnifies his legacy. I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.
Even though Messi has over 700 goals in his career, with numerous of those goals being wonderful, there are still dozens of amazing goals that would have been for Messi. This is what this series will be about, so without further ado, let's look at them.
The 1st "would have been" goal we'll be seeing in this series happened at Camp Nou against Atlético Madrid in the 2008/09 season. He made a great run from the halfway line, going all the way to the box and chipping the goalkeeper, but the shot went just wide.
Next up is his recent game against Real Madrid at the Di Stéfano stadium. He shot straight from the corner and it almost went in, but as everyone looked in shock, the ball went to the crossbar and bounced off what would have been Messi's first Olympic goal.
Continuing with almost Olympics goals, Messi once again came close against Sevilla at home in the 2015-16 La Liga season. His shot went to the near post, but it hit the post and it bounced off to Suárez, who hit the bar and couldn't convert the chance either.
Now we go forward to the 2016-17 season, specifically in the Copa del Rey semi-finals against Atlético Madrid at home, where he shot a great free-kick but once again the crossbar denied his chance. That would have certainly been one of Messi's best free-kick goals.
And last but not least, there's his solo goal attempt against Athletic Club in the 2011-12 seasons, starting his run from behind the halfway line and going all the way to the box, but Iraizoz saved his shot, unfortunately.
That's all for the first part of this new series. I hope you liked this, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.
Yesterday, Barça unfortunately lost 2-1 against Real Madrid at the Di Stéfano stadium. Benzema and Kroos scored for Real Madrid, while Mingueza scored Barcelona's discount (which came from a good Messi pre-assist) which in the end wasn't enough to change the result of the game even after Messi hit the post trying an Olympic goal. Messi's stats were: 1 pre-assist, 2 SoT, 1 woodwork (7 in total), 0.62 xG, 7 dribbles, 2 key passes, 9 SCA, 0.83 xA, 10 ground duels won, 1 aerial duel won, 3 fouls won, 1 tackle, 1 interception, 5 ball recoveries, 7 pressures (1 successful), 2 crosses, 2 long balls, 59 passes, 99 touches. This won him the MoTM according to WhoScored and got him as high as a 9.86 rating from Infogol.
This game was crucial for Barça's title chances, and they blew the opportunity away. Still, the race is very contended between Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid, and Barcelona, with only 1 point between all 3 of them.
Messi still leads as the Pichichi and he hopefully wins the MVP as well (as he should). But now, the priority shifts to the Copa del Rey final which will be played next Saturday against Athletic Bilbao, hoping to get revenge from the Supercopa de España loss from January.
With this game, he also broke the record for most appearances in El Clásico, beating Ramos' 44 with a 45. Hopefully, Barça can put themselves together before the end of the season, but until then, I'll see you in the next blog.
Doing a solo goal is no easy task. It usually requires good dribbling abilities, which I previously detailed in Messi's case (in my "The best dribbler in history" entry and continuation), and also a relatively good speed and deacceleration to get close to the goal. But for Messi, there are many cases of him doing this, which I will detail below.
Some of his most popular solo goals are of course his run against Getafe in the 2006/07 Copa del Rey semi-finals, emulating Maradona, his solo goal against Athletic Bilbao in the 2014/15 Copa del Rey final, which I will expand on in a later entry, and his goal against Real Madrid in the 2010/11 UCL semi-finals.
But those are not his only solo goals by any means. A great video by Messi Magic™ shows 20 solo goals from Messi, an insane amount from any other footballer, but normal for the Argentine.
I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.
