Messi's best performance ever

10 years ago, Barcelona beat Manchester United 3-1 to win the 2010/11 UCL final. In this game, according to some, Messi made his best performance ever. This is what today's entry will be talking about, without further ado, let's get into Messi's performance.

Messi made some good runs in the first half, managing some dribbles as well, but it would be Pedro who opened up the score for Barcelona. Rooney later equalized the game with a good shot (which came from an offside player), and for the last important play of the first half, Messi made a good run and nearly scored after Villa passed him the ball back, but he couldn't reach the ball for the final shot.

For the second half, Messi shot from out the box for an incredible goal to the near post, a powerful shot that Van Der Sar couldn't save. It was 2-1 for Barcelona at Wembley, as Messi passionately celebrated his goal. For the last goal, Messi made a great run to the box, where he later lost the ball, but it got picked up by Pedro, who passed it to Villa and smashed it into the back of the net for the final scoreline of 3-1. Messi couldn't be any happier as he celebrated the goal, smashing his fists into the air while kneeling on the ground.

As the final whistle was heard, Barcelona became champions of Europe. It was their 4th Champions League in their history, and Messi's 3rd. Messi was in the ToTS, won the top scorer award with 12 goals, and made the most dribbles in the competition (71). And for his position, he made the most short passes (739) and passes overall (748).

His stats from the game were: 1 goal, 3 SoT (5 in total), 4 key passes, 10 dribbles, 1 through-ball, 6 fouls won, 92/100 passes, and 125 touches. This earned him a perfect 10/10 WhoScored rating. This was his heatmap:

And this was his performance on video:

As already stated, this performance won Barcelona the UCL final against Manchester United. And with how good and crucial this game was, it's reasonable to say that it was Messi's best performance ever. 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 against European Super League teams

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.

The 6 times Messi could have left Barcelona

Since Barça first contracted Messi back in 2000, their relationship has been practically inseparable. But believe it or not, there have been 6 occasions where he could have left the club, which I will detail on today's entry.

The first time was back in February 2001, when he received a serious injury, a fractured fibula. When he was at his hotel with his dad, Jorge Messi asked him "Lío, what do you want us to do? Do we come back?", referring to leaving Barcelona to go back home, but Leo strongly replied, "No, dad, I want to succeed at Barcelona.", something his dad still remembers to this day and brings tears to his eyes.

In 2003, Arsenal was in discussions with Barcelona to sign Messi after noting his clear talent. They were also in talks with Fàbregas, who was a team-mate of Messi in the 2001/02 and 2002/03 Cadete seasons. In the end, it amounted to nothing due to Messi's unwillingness to leave the club.

The third time was in 2005, after his amazing performance in the 2005 Joan Gamper. Inter Milan offered to pay Messi's high release clause of €150 million (which was over twice the standing record at the time of €77.5 million from Real Madrid for Zidane) and even triple his wages. But Laporta told Messi's father that Messi would be happy and get glory at Barça, while he would only get financial gain at Inter Milan. Barça refused to sell Messi and he stayed. Later in 2006, Inter looked to sign him for an extraordinary €250 million (which was the bar set by Barcelona earlier), but Laporta once again refused the offer.

The fourth time was June 2014. Numerous factors accumulated to a point where he wanted to leave Barça, like Tito Villanova's delicate situation, problems with the Hacienda due to alleged tax fraud, and few trophies with the team. In the end, he signed a new contract with the club and won the treble the next season.

In June 2016, he thought about leaving once again, though it was more the thought of leaving Spain altogether than Barça. This was because of him getting charged of tax fraud and getting a big fine. Once again, he decided to stay after the storm cleared.

The last and probably most known time was in August 2020 after their 8-2 loss to Bayern in the UCL which got them kicked out of the competition. He directly expressed his desire to leave via burofax on August 25th, which lead to massive attention all around the world. After a week and a half of uncertainty, Messi decided to stay since he would have to sue the club to leave, and he didn't want to do that out of his love for the club.

In the end, through the good and the bad, Messi has decided to stay at Barcelona, a clear sign of the love he has for the Catalan club.

The best goal-less performance ever

6 years ago, Barcelona beat Manchester City 1-0 at the Camp Nou with an assist from Messi. This would go down for many as the best goal-less performance ever, a 10/10 without scoring, which was and still is unheard of. Today, I will detail Messi's excellent performance in this game.

He got his only assist in the game after sidestepping Milner, then giving a brilliant pass to Rakitic which left him 1v1, making a chip shot and scoring Barcelona's only goal that game. It was the winning goal of the game and it sealed Barcelona's ticket to the quarter-finals.

is stats in the game were the following: 1 assist, 3 shots on target (8 in total), 5 key passes, 4 big chances created, 10 dribbles, 4 fouls received, 1 tackle, 1 interception, 2 long balls, 2 through-balls, 82 passes, and 116 touches. A perfect 10/10 game. This was his performance on video:

Barcelona ended up winning the tournament, so this performance was crucial for Barça to win it, even if he didn't score, because Messi is much, much more than just goals. I hoped you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.

When Messi consolidated himself as one of the best in the world in Stanford Bridge

After easily getting 1st in their group, Barcelona got Chelsea in the UCL R16, the hardest rival they could've gotten. Messi had recently recovered from a thigh muscle strain which left him sidelined for 10 days, so he probably wasn't even at 100%, but he still got started on that February 22nd of 2006.

In his first actions of the game, he got a shot on target which Cech saved, won a foul, stole a ball from Lampard, and made a great pass in the box which didn't end up converted. He later received a brutal foul on his knee from Del Horno that wasn't even called a foul by the referee, but later got justice as Del Horno tackled him again and he received a red card this time. Despite these constant attacks on him, he remained firm on the game.

In the second half, he first made a shot on target, then a good pass inside the box that found nobody, a shot that hit the crossbar, and then received a foul inside the box from Terry not given. Clearly, despite the referee not being on his side, he was the best player on the pitch, and he later received high praise from multiple media outlets regarding his performance.

Afterward, he was in ESM's Team of the Month, ESM's Team of the Season, won the FIFPro Young Player of the Year, the World Soccer Young Player of the Year, got nominated for the Laureus World Sports Award for Breakthrough of the Year, and most importantly, got nominated for the 2006 Ballon d'Or, where someone voted him as the 4th best player in the world behind Cannavaro, Buffon and Henry, quite a big achievement and proof that people already saw him as one of the best players in the world at that time.

Messi vs Ronaldo: A goalscoring comparison

Many people have compared Messi and Ronaldo on a goalscoring basis, and some even just restrict the debate to that section, which is a massive injustice to Messi. Ronaldo's position has been more of a fox-in-the-box position since he joined Real Madrid, while Messi has consistently been a winger/attacking midfielder. But even then, I will show proof in this entry that Messi is the better goalscorer than Ronaldo. So without further ado, let's look at the numbers.

Messi has scored 729 goals, while Ronaldo has scored 767. But this is misleading since Ronaldo has played 145 more games, or 11522 minutes specifically. Their goal ratios per game are 0.806 to 0.73, or 0.888 to 0.81 when taking their per 90 ratios. And without penalties, the total goal tally is 633 to 631 for Ronaldo, or a 0.697 to 0.6 ratio per game. Quite a difference between the two. In the league, Ronaldo wins 470 to 463 goals, but the ratio is 0.91 to 0.78 in favor of Messi. And in the Champions League, although Ronaldo wins 135 to 119, Messi wins ratio-wise with a 0.8 to 0.75 per game.

Another important thing to note is Golden Boots since Messi wins 6 to Ronaldo's 4 and Ronaldo hasn't won the award since the 2014/15 season. And although Ronaldo beats Messi in UCL top-scorer awards, his 2 offside goals in the 2016/17 season won him the award ahead of Messi (12 to 11). If it wasn't for those goals, Messi would have won it and it would be 7-6 for Messi overall.

Then there's other records/milesones like Messi having the record for most goals in a calendar year (91 to 69), most goals in a season (73 to 61), 3 seasons reaching 50+ non-penalty goals (Ronaldo has never achieved that), Messi being the youngest of the two to reach 100 goals all the way to 700, etc.

Against top sides, Messi has more goals against the top 3, top 4, top 5 and top 6 despite playing less games against all of those top sides. And against England's top 6, Messi has 2 fewer goals with 47 fewer games. And in finals, Messi has a ratio of 0.69 goals per final, while Ronaldo has a ratio of 0.59. And in head-to-head games, he has 22 goals to Ronaldo's 21.

And finally, when looking at their shooting % Messi wins overall 18.9% to 15.3%, or 5.28 to 6.54 shots taken per goal. Outside the box, the % is 8.79% to 4.63% (11.38 to 21.58 SPG), a massive difference, and inside the box it's to 27.14% 23.36% (3.68 to 4.28 SPG), again, quite a difference.

Overall, it can be seen that it's in fact Messi who is the better goalscorer of the two. I hoped you liked this entry and I'll see you in the next blog.

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.

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 king of nutmegs

Although not too much thought of, it is undeniable that Messi is great at nutmegging players, which will be today's topic. Nutmegging a player is no easy task, especially when considering that Messi does it regularly in La Liga, the most intense league defensive-wise by far according to some metrics, but maybe that's just his magic. Without further ado, let's get into the numbers.

Even at the young age of 19/20 years, which was the 2006/07 season, he completed 8 nutmegs in La Liga, an impressive amount. He's also gotten double digits in 4 different seasons, and even reached 19 in the 2014/15 season, or one nutmeg every two games, an insane number. In total, he has done 132 nutmegs in La Liga, Since the 2017/18 La Liga season, he topped the number of most nutmegs twice and got second place once. As we can see, he's undeniably the best nutmegger of this generation, if not of all times.

And that's only La Liga, Messi clearly does nutmegs on other competitions as well, like in the Champions League, where he has done 7 nutmegs since the 2018/19 season. Fortunately, there's a video that compiles 125 nutmegs from him. And you know he's terrific at nutmegging players when there's a 10-minute comp of him just doing that.

At the end of the day, Messi's nutmegging abilities come from his other-worldly dribbling, and that can be seen on the pitch often. Hope that information was useful to you and I'll see you all next time.

Messi vs English teams

There are people who say that Messi could never succeed in the Premier League, but in this entry, I will show one of the reasons why that is not true, and that is his performances against English teams (remember that they are only the "Big 6", not teams like Burnley or Sheffield United). Without further ado, let's look at the stats.

In terms of goals and assists, he has scored 26 goals and assisted 6, giving a total of 32 goals generated in just 34 games. He also has 1 poker, 1 hat-trick, and 6 braces. The average Elo of those English clubs (when Messi scored against them) is 1904.33~, which would be top 7 in the world today, so it can't be said that he did it when they weren't that good or something like that. It should be said that he has scored against them in Champions League finals, as he did twice against Manchester United.

Credit: Jasper Juinen/Getty Images

Looking at other statistics, he has an average rating of 8.72 against English teams since the 2009/10 season, he has done 5.5 dribbles per game (he even did 16 against Manchester United in the 2007/08 season, a record in the Champions League), he has been the Man of The Match in 13/23 games played and has given 2 key passes per game. As you can see, Messi has no problem when it comes to English teams, so he would have no problem if he went to the Premier League.