Messi's stats in knockout matches

Continuing with the argument that Messi is a big game player, and with the upcoming Copa America KO matches he'll be playing against Ecuador, it's a good time to look at Messi's stats in all knockout matches in his career.

In total, he has played 202 knockout matches, winning 120, tying 41, and losing 41. He has 131 goals and 65 assists in those games, which is a 0.97 G/A per game ratio, unimaginable for most players considering not only that these are knockout matches but also the sheer amount of these types of games he's played.

Going into more specifics, in 107 games he has the following stats: 488 shots, 207 on target, 563 dribbles, 243 key passes, 63 through-balls, 51 MoTM, and an average rating of 8.35, which further proves the point that Messi not only appears more often than not in these games but that he has a great performance on average. As a side note, he's created 30 big chances in 55 games.

And now I'll go stage for stage:

Round of 64: 1 game (against Gramenet in the 2004/05 Copa del Rey).

Round of 32: 3 games, 3 goals.

Round of 16: 56 games and 51 goals, and 20 assists - In ~29 games: 137 shots, 64 on target, 156 dribbles, 69 key passes, 18 through-balls, 19 MoTM, 8.75 average rating - 10 big chances created in 18 games.

Quarter-finals: 54 games, 25 goals, and 16 assists - In ~30 games: 147 shots, 59 on target, 149 dribbles, 64 key passes, 15 through-balls, 11 MoTM, and an 8.03 average rating - 6 big chances created in 16 games.

Semi-finals: 45 games, 21 goals, and 16 assists - In 28 games: 119 shots, 50 on target, 161 dribbles, 63 key passes, 17 through-balls, 12 MoTM, and 8.31 average rating - 6 big chances created in 11 games.

Finals: 43 games, 31 goals, and 13 assists - In 20 games: 85 shots, 34 on target, 97 dribbles, 47 key passes, 13 through-balls, 9 MoTM, and 8.3 average rating - 8 big chances created in 10 games.

Hopefully, Messi can further strengthen these numbers against Ecuador. That's all for today, so I hope you liked this entry and I'll see you in the next blog.

Messi vs the referees part 8

As I've said numerous times before, Messi has been hurt by refereeing decisions a vast amount of times, so this series will be very long, as you can see by the fact we're now in part 8. So without further ado, let's look at more refereeing decisions against Messi.

The first one we'll be seeing happened against Real Madrid in the 2017 Spanish Super Cup, where Ramos fouled Messi inside the box but no foul was given.

Going forward to the second leg against Sevilla in the 2020/21 Copa del Rey, there was a penalty not given after Messi shot on target and Ocampos blocked it with his hands.

In the 2019/20 La Liga season, in an away game against Real Betis, there was a penalty from Bartra to Messi not given.

In the 2012/13 La Liga season, playing against Real Betis away, Messi had a 1v1 chance but it was wrongfully canceled because of a non-existent offside.

And last but not least, playing against Athletic Bilbao away in the 2018/19 La Liga season, there was this brutal stomp on Messi's leg by Yeray which wasn't given a red card for.

That is all for part 8 of this series. I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.

Most dates for the 2021-22 season are set

Yesterday, Barcelona announced the official dates for most tournaments in the 2021-22 season after confirmation from the RFEF and UEFA. All details aren't exactly known, but there's information about some important games, so without further ado, let's look at them.

The league will start on August 14th, though the rival is unknown. The dates for El Clásico and the Catalan derby are yet to be known. There are no details for the end of the season either, though it probably will be in May as it's been on other occasions. For holidays, there won't be any games on December 24th/2th/26th, but there will be on New Year's Eve (December 31st).

For the Copa del Rey, the final will be played on April 23rd of 2022. And for the Supercopa de España, there hasn't been a date, but it's speculated that it will be on January like the previous tournaments. The rival in the semi-finals will be Real Madrid, while Atlético Madrid and Athletic battle in the other semifinal matchup.

For the Champions League, the draw for the group stage will be made on August 26th. These will be the dates for the group stage games:

First game: September 14th/15h

Second game: September 28th/29th

Third game: October 19th/20th

Fourth game: November 2nd/3rd

Fifth game: Novmber 23rd/24th

Sixth game: December 7th/8th

Then for the knockout stage games, the dates will be the following:

R16 (1st leg): February 15th/16th/22nd/23rd, 2022

R16 (2nd leg): March 8th/9th/15th/16th, 2022

QF (1st leg): April 5th/6th, 2022

QF (2nd leg): April 12th/13th, 2022

Semifinals (1st leg): April 26th/27th, 2022

Semifinals (2nd leg): May 3rd/4th, 2022

Final: May 28th, at Saint Petersburg Stadium.

And finally, for international breaks in 2021, the dates will be September 1st-8th, October 8th-12th, and November 11th-16th. For Conmebol qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, the remaining dates are January 27th through February 1st and March 24-29th. The Inter-confederation play-offs will be June 2nd-7th.

That is all for today, so I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.

Messi vs the referees part 6

It's time for part 6 of the series. There is still much more to cover about refereeing errors against Messi, so let's go straight to them.

The first one we'll be seeing is a poorly canceled 1v1 for Messi in the 2017-18 Copa del Rey final. It could have easily been a goal for him but the linesman called a non-existent offside.

The next error we'll be seeing happened in the recent El Clásico loss in April. Nacho made a bad tackle towards Messi inside the box but nothing happened.

And continuing with that game, there was a foul from Lucas Vázquez to Messi previous to Real Madrid's first goal.

Going way back to the 1st leg of the 2005/06 UCL R16, there's this brutal foul from Del Horno to Messi, but no card was given (not even a foul was called). He later received a red card for another attack on Messi.

And to end this part, there's this awful challenge from Pennant to Messi in the 2006/07 UCL season (2nd leg), which should have been punished with a red card.

That's all for the 6th part of this series. I hope you liked this entry, and as always I'll see you in the next blog.

Messi in April: Great performances and a trophy

April is over, and we now begin the last month of the season, May. But it's time to go back and look at Messi's performances in April, where he proved that he's still the best player in the world.

In only 6 games, he scored 5 goals and made 1 assist as well as 2 pre-assists. He was the MoTM in 5/6 games and never dropped a below-7 performance. Other stats include: 3 big chances created, 14 SoT (36 in total), 23 dribbles, 12 key passes, 31 SCA, 2.03 xA, 44 ground duels won, 1 aerial duel won, 24 fouls won, 1 through-ball, 8 crosses, 12 long balls, 313 passes, and 509 touches. Amazing stats.

On a collective scale, he was important in Barcelona's victories in La Liga which put them very close in the race, though the game against Granada was a shame. He also won the Copa del Rey as the final's MVP, another title to the numerous he's had in his career.

These were his highlights of the month on video:

The objectives for May is to hopefully win La Liga and the Pichichi, which would also seal the MVP. But until then, I'll see you in the next blog.

Messi's performance in the 2020/21 Copa del Rey

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.

First, we'll go game for game. All the games have been detailed in this blog, including the game where Messi didn't play. These are: Rayo Vallecano, Granada, Sevilla (1st leg), Sevilla (2nd leg), and Athletic Bilbao.

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.

Barcelona wins the Copa del Rey with Messi as the final MVP!

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.

When Messi scored an impossible goal

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

Messi vs the referees part 3

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.

Messi goals that would have been part 1

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.

Barcelona lose El Clásico and hurt their title chances

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.

When Messi does solo goals

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.

Messi in March: Best of the best

With another month gone, it's now time to analyze how Messi performed in the month of March. Upsides and downsides on collective terms, but the individual genius in Messi remains as intact as always.

In only 5 games, Messi achieved 5 goals, 4 assists, and 1 pre-assist, being MoTM in 5/5 of those games and earning a perfect 10/10 in 3/5 games, and at least a 9/10 in the two other games. A form only the GOAT Lionel Messi can keep up with.

In collective terms, although he got kicked out of the Champions League by PSG, his team managed to get an amazing comeback against Sevilla in the Copa del rey, going from 2-0 down to 3-2 up in the aggregate (with Messi being the main orchestrator). They've also gotten closer to Atlético Madrid for the top of the table in La Liga.

These were his highlights of the month in video:

For April, the goal is to get to the top of the table and win the Copa del Rey final they have with Athletic Bilbao. Hopefully, both of those goals can be achieved, but until then, see you in the next blog.

MSN: An unstoppable trio

Messi's partnership with Neymar and Suárez was certainly the most powerful in the world. Their numbers were incredible, of course, and in their short 3-season span between the 2014/15 and 2016/17 season, managed to win a lot of titles. So without further ado, let's look at what the MSN did in that time.

Prior to Suárez's arrival in 2014, Messi and Neymar had a good linkup between each other in the attack, but it wasn't so good with Alexis Sánchez. When Suárez was signed, the dynamic changed significantly, since Messi's role as a false 9 was now covered by Suárez, a striker, so Messi now played on the right wing once again. Not only that, but all three of them became friends not long after, which impacted their games a lot when they were together.

In terms of titles, they won 1 Champions League, 2 La Liga, 3 Copa del Rey, 1 Spanish Super Cup, 1 European Super Cup, and 1 Club World Cup. It also includes the treble won in the 2014/15 season, the quintuple won in 2015, and the domestic treble in 2016.

In terms of statistics, they played 113 games together, all 3 of them scored in 22 games, all 3 of them got involved in a goal in 38 games, which are insane numbers.

MSN ended when Neymar left Barcelona for PSG on August 2017 for a record €222M, but its legacy has not been forgotten at all, and still remains the deadliest trio in history.

Barcelona are kicked out of the Champions League in the Round of 16

With hopes of a comeback being quite grim, Barcelona faced PSG yesterday in Paris for the second leg of the UCL R16, also being Laporta's first game as Barcelona's new president. Unfortunately, Mbappé shattered Barça's dreams with a penalty goal, and although Messi scored an absolute rocket (Puskás nominee most likely), he unfortunately later missed a penalty (should have been retaken for invasion) and the game ended in a 1-1 draw. Messi's stats were: 1 goal, 3 SOT (7 shots in total), 6 dribbles, 4 key passes, 7 ground duels won, 2 fouls won, 1 interception, 1 tackle, 12 pressures (6 successful), 2 long balls, 3 crosses, 85 passes and 125 touches which earned him a MoTM according to RAC1, even getting a perfect 10/10 according to Infogol.

This was his performance on tape:

Barcelona had a few chances to get a good lead and perhaps even comeback the tie, but just like in the first leg, Dembélé's finishing was disappointing and Lenglet made a big mistake which caused a penalty, and Mingueza getting an early yellow card and almost getting a second one, which got him subbed off only 35 minutes in, didn't make things easier either.

One of the few upsides is that Barcelona can now fully concentrate in La Liga (until the Copa del Rey final with Athletic Bilbao) and make a charge for 1st place if they play their cards well and Atlético Madrid drops some points.

Tomorrow I'll do an entry detailing Messi's performance in the UCL. So until then, I'll see you in the next blog.

Barcelona has a new president!

After the votes were counted, Joan Laporta came on top with 54.28% of the votes (30.184 votes). Font came in 2nd with 29.99% (16.679 votes) and Freixa was last with 8.58% (4.769 votes), with 3628 spoilt votes and 351 blank votes. Laporta was the club's president from the 2003/04 season all the way to the 2009/10 season.

Messi casted his vote at around 11:43 AM (CET), and he brought his son Thiago Messi with him as well.

In that period of time, Barcelona won 4 La Ligas, 1 Copa del Rey and 2 UCLs, achieving the historical Sextete as well. Messi scored 127 goals and made 47 assists in 214 games while Laporta was in charge, won a Ballon d'Or in 2009 (and a second one in 2010, where Laporta was in charge half of the year), and 2 Golden Boots as well.

With Bartomeu gone and Laporta being Barcelona's president once again, hopefully we can go back to the good old days, and see a happy Messi once again.

And the miracle came!

Amazingly enough, yesterday Barcelona managed to comeback Sevilla's 2-0 first leg win with a 3-0 victory in the second leg. Dembélé struck an amazing shot after being handed the ball by Messi, ending the first half 1-0 for Barça. In the second half, Sevilla got a penalty, where Messi also got a yellow card for argumenting, but Ter-Stegen saved Ocampos' shot, and when the chances of qualifying seemed grim in the end, a corner by Messi ended up being Piqué's equalizer to send the game to extra-time. And finally, in extra-time Braithwaite scored Barcelona's winner to send them into the Copa del Rey final. Messi's stats were the following: 1 SOT (7 in total), 13 dribbles, 3 key passes, 21 ground duels won, 6 fouls received, 2 tackles, 1 long ball, 1 cross, 84 passes and 146 touches, which meant yet another MoTM for him.

This was his performance on video, 17 minutes of pure poetry:

There's really not much to complain about (apart from the penalty given which would have costed the game), and the team performed great in general, from the goalkeeper to the forwards, as well as the substitutes. Our rival in the final will be either Athletic Bilbao or Levante.

It's also worthy to note that this is the third time Barcelona has comebacker a game/tie in the Copa del Rey this season (and the third time Messi spearheaded it), coming back from a 1-0 to a 2-1 against Rayo Vallecano (goal and pre-assist from Messi), from 2-0 to 5-3 against Granada (involved in 4 out of 5 goals from Barcelona), and finally from 2-0 to 3-2 against Sevilla, with 2 goals influenced by Messi. He is still clearly the leader of the team.

In the following days, Barcelona will face Osasuna to get closer to Atlético Madrid, and then they'll face PSG for the second leg of the UCL R16 in Paris. But until then, see you in the next blog.

Messi in February: Still the best

With another month gone by, in this entry I'll take a look at what Messi achieved in February of this year. So without further ado, let's look at what Messi accomplished last month.

With 8 goals, 3 assists and 2 pre-assists in 8 games, as well as being the best player on the pitch in 6 (or 7) of those games, and possibly 5 10/10 games as well, Messi proved everyone that he's still the best player in the world by some distance.

With his team, he achieved an amazing comeback against Granada and an important win against Sevilla in the league at the Sánchez Pizjuán. He will also most likely receive the Player of the Month Award in La Liga.

Looking forward to the next month, he will look to secure Barça's position in La Liga and reach the Copa del Rey final as well. But until then, see you in the next blog.

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.