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.

When Messi broke the internet

Exactly six years ago, Barcelona beat Bayern Munich 3-0 in the first leg of the UCL semifinals. Messi did a fantastic 10/10 performance with 2 goals and an assist, which was crucial. So without further ado, let's look at Messi's performance in detail.

Not much happened in the first half except for a 1v1 between Suárez and Neuer, created by Messi, which Suárez couldn't convert. But the second half was much better, with a great shot from outside the box that entered the near bottom corner of the goal. And that wasn't the end, because a few minutes later, he received a good pass from Rakitic, and after entering the penalty area, he got rid of Boateng, sending him to the ground, and then made a wonderful chip that went over Neuer. This was the goal that broke the internet, as everyone was in awe at how good he was, including footballers like Drogba, Lineker, Podolski, Lukaku, Alex Morgan, Benteke, etc. In the last minute, Messi made a pass to Neymar that he took to the penalty box and converted, ending the game 3-0.

Messi's stats were the following: 2 goals, 1 assist, 2 big chances created, 4 SoT (4 in total), 9 dribbles, 4 key passes, 2 aerial duels won, 1 tackle, 2 interceptions, 32 passes out of 40, and 73 touches. This was his performance on video:

Barcelona later got to the final and then won the Champions League, so this performance was crucial in winning this important tournament. I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.

When Messi destroyed Real Madrid in the Champions League

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.

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.

The game where Messi cracked his shell in La Masía

With 21 goals in only 14 games at Infantil A, it came as no surprise that Barça wanted to upgrade him to a better side, which was Cadete B. Unfortunately, due to bureaucratic reasons, he wasn't allowed to play any official games in the team, but he was allowed to play friendlies. The most important friendly (and his most important game) that season was against Parma for the prestigious Coppa Maestrelli.

Before the tournament, Messi didn't use to talk with his other team-mates. That was until they arrived at the hotel and the team's four captains decided to play a prank on him, with Piqué taking everything out of his room to simulate a robbery. His only reaction was to put his hands on his head. Then the captains told Messi that it was something they always did to every new player.

Then, it was time to face Parma in the tournament. His first main action of the game was to dribble past a Parma player, make a good cross into the box and make an assist to one of his team-mates. After that, he received a ball a few meters off the box which, after getting past a player from Parma, shot into the goal, an attempt which was saved by the keeper. His next play was him running into the box, getting past an opponent and receiving a tackle inside the box.

Then, he made a good pressure play where he almost got the ball but ended up making a foul, and not long after, he scored a goal via header after a good cross from a free kick. Before the end of the first half, he put an opponent on the floor and he also made a key pass. In the second half, he made a key pass, got a shot blocked, and got a goal situation ruled out by the referee since he gave the foul he received shortly before. Then to wrap the game up, he made some more dribbles, and the game ended there, in a Barça win. Here is his performance on video:

He was the top scorer of the tournament and the best player as well. After that experience, and what happened in the hotel as well, he opened up a lot more, even cracking jokes, far different from before where he was very shy. It was evident that he had cracked his shell, not only as a player since he performed so well in an important tournament, but also as a person.

He was promoted to Cadete A next season, and he led his team to the best cadete side in their history, winning all their competitions and winning some games by large margins as well, so it helped in the long run as well. There were a lot of games that defined him as a player throughout his career, but this was perhaps the first major one, all the way back in La Masía.

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'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.