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.

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 before and after Messi

Before Messi came to Barcelona, they definitely weren't the club that they are now. In this entry, I'll concentrate on what they've won since Messi came to the club, and how they were before he came. Without further ado, let's dive into the topic.

Before Messi's debut, Barcelona only had 1 UCL, won in the 1991/92 season. But then, in Messi's second professional season, they won their second UCL, then a third in 2008/09, a fourth in 2010/11, and a fifth in 2014/15, with Messi being the main man in the last 3 and an important piece in the first one. This is definitely the most notable difference from Barcelona before and after Messi came. And continuing with the UCLs, they won their first 3 Club World Cups with Messi, as well as 3/5 of their UEFA Super Cups.

Domestically, they had 16 La Liga titles before Messi came, and they now have 26, another massive increase caused by Messi as well. Their Copa del Rey cabinet went from 24 to 30 trophies, and they doubled their Supercopa de España tally from 8 to 16.

Overall, Barcelona had 62 trophies before Messi came, without having won one since 1999, but when Messi came in the 2004/05 season, they started winning trophies again, and now have 96 trophies. So in conclusion, since Messi came to Barcelona, they have gotten exponentially better since.

Messi's performances in the UEFA Super Cup

Messi has won 3 UEFA Super Cups, being crucial most of the time, which is why I will show you in this entry how good he did in every edition he played in. Without further ado, let's look at his performances.

His first performance was against Sevilla in the 2006 UEFA Super Cup. Unfortunately, Sevilla won 3-0, and there wasn't much Messi could do.

Then came the 2009 UEFA Super Cup against Shakhtar Donetsk. This time, he assisted Pedro's goal in extra-time to win the trophy. This would be their 5th trophy out of 6 that they won in 2009.

The next edition Messi would play in was in 2011. He first scored a goal and then assisted Fàbregas for the second and last goal of the game. This obviously won him the MVP Award.

The last time he played in the UEFA Super Cup was against Sevilla in 2015. He scored Barcelona's first two goals, both coming from amazing free kicks, to counter Banega's early goal. After the game went to extra-time, Pedro would take advantage of a rebound from Messi's shot to score the winning goal. All in all, a perfect 10/10 that won him another MVP Award.

As we can see, Messi steps up more often than not in the UEFA Super Cup as well, another point for Messi when it comes to big games.