Keeping up the form in the league

Yesterday, Barcelona beat Osasuna away 2-0 with an assist from Messi in both goals. Alba scored Barça's first goal with an amazing pass from Messi, and Ilaix Moriba made it 2-0 in the second half with another assist from Messi, his first professional goal as well. Messi's stats were: 2 assists, 5 dribbles, 2 SOT (5 in total), 6 key passes, 5 ground duels won, 4 pressures, 3 long balls, 1 cross, 62 passes and 92 touches, which meant yet another MoTM for Messi.

This was his performance on video:

The finishing was good, and most players from the team did a good performance, which is important for the morale because all points count from now on, having a very tight race between us, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid.

This leaves Barcelona only 2 points behind Atlético Madrid, but they have 2 games in hand. Luckily, the Madrid derby is today, and if they both draw, it would be great news for Barcelona as they would both drop points. Also, Barcelona will face PSG in the following days for the second leg of the UCL R16, trying to comeback a 4-1 loss in Paris, which seems unlikely, but not impossible after seeing what happened with Sevilla.

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 ancestry

When talking about Lionel Messi, his most mentioned relatives are his siblings, parents and his maternal grandmother Celia, but, of course, it extends for much more than that, having detailed information going as back as the 18th century believe it or not. So without further ado, let's look at Messi's ancestry.

So far, we've reached until Messi's great-great-great-grandfathers Pacífico Messi (born circa 1797) and Lucía Catena. The main branch (where Messi came from) comes from Ángelo Messi, from where Messi's paternal ancestors come from. As it'll be seen in the next picture, he comes from Italian immigrants who immigrated to Argentina someHe also has Spanish ancestors, having info as back as Mariano Pérez Miralles (born in 1821) and Teresa Llobera Minguet (both married in 1846), his paternal great-great-grandfathers, to his father, Jorge Messi. This also leads to the weird fact that Bojan is a distant relative of his, since they share great-great-grandfathers (Pérez, which is present in Bojan's full name, can also be seen in every generation leading to Messi).

There's also another side of the branch, all carrying the Messi surname, which got started by Giovanni Messi (born in 1858). There are still living relatives nowadays, being the youngest one born in 1990.

With Messi having 3 children of his own, it's fascinating how far back we can look at Messi's ancestry, and the little fun details we can get from it like Bojan being a distant relative from him. Whoever did the work to find Messi's ancestors deserves huge praise, because we can see as far back as 6 generations from Messi, which is quite remarkable.

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 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.

Debunking a Myth: Mbappé is better than Messi was at his age

Due to Mbappé's recent performance against Barcelona, Mbappé has once again received shouts that he's better than Messi was at 22. Today, I will do my best to debunk that myth, so without further ado, let's compare the two.

At 22 years old, Messi won his first UCL being the star man (and his second being an important player of his team), and later won the Ballon d'Or as well (he was the 2nd-best player the two years prior). It was his historic Sextete year, being the main man behind all of it. On the other hand, Mbappé hasn't won a UCL yet nor is he even near to getting a Ballon d'Or (I doubt he will get it this year too), and he's never gotten into the top 3 of the Ballon d'Or either.

He was also the best dribbler in the world at only 21, with 8.4 dribbles per 90 in the 2007/08 season according to StatsBomb, while Mbappé has never gotten over 4 dribbles per 90 (2005/06 Messi had 7.4 per 90 and 2006/07 Messi had 7.1 per 90).

Another important thing to note is that Mbappé plays in a considerably easier league (since he plays for PSG), so his G/A tallies are a bit inflated, and he also plays the Euro and WC qualifiers, which has lead to and will keep leading to him playing against much weaker nations much more often. And France's midfield is much better than Argentina's, so the ball can go easier to him and he can score more often as well. This also debunks the World Cup argument, since Mbappé's team was filled with great players.

In summary, Messi was already one of the best players in the world at 20 and was the best dribbler in the world at 21, while Mbappé hasn't reached top 3 in the world yet at 22 and he plays in an easier league. This shows that Messi was a better player than Mbappé was at his age.

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.