Barcelona get a comfortable win against Getafe with a brace and assist from Messi

With every game left in La Liga being taken as a final, winning is always vital for the La Liga race. Messi shook the crossbar early on and it hit the line, but a few minutes later he scored after making a run and shooting the top opposite angle. Lenglet scored an own goal to tie the scoreline 1-1, but Chakla then scored an own goal to give Barça the lead. Messi then made a good volley with his right foot which hit the post, then scored on the rebound. In the second half, Getafe got closer thanks to a penalty from Ünal, but a goal from Araújo assisted via corner by Messi and a penalty in the last minute from Griezmann (which Messi gifted him despite the fact he's in the Pichichi race and would've meant a hat-trick) sealed things up and gave Barça the 5-2 win.

Messi's stats were the following: 2 goals, 1 assist, 1 penalty gifted, 4 SoT, 2 woodworks, 7 shots in total, 0.59 xG, 2 dribbles out of 4, 1 key pass, 4 SCA, 0.5 xA, 7 duels won out of 10, 4 fouls received, 1 tackle, 3 ball recoveries, 4 successful pressures out of 9, 2 long balls, 1 cross, 47 passes and 73 touches, which was a 10/10 performance that won him the King of the Match. This was his performance on video:

Another 3 important points in the last competition left to play for. If Barcelona win every single La Liga game they have left, they will win the league, so Barça depend on themselves. Though of course it would be great if Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid dropped points to make the process easier.

There were also some fun facts about this game in terms of Messi's stats, which are:

• Messi is the first player in the history of the top5 leagues to scores 25+ goals in 12 seasons in a row.
• Getafe became the 12th team to concede 20+ goals from Messi.
• Araujo became the 51st Barça player to receive an assist from Messi.
• Araujo became the 16th Barça defender to receive an assist from Messi.
• Messi's 9 assists in La Liga this season went to 9 different teammates: Lenglet De Jong Trincao Dembélé Ilaix Alba Mingueza Dest Araujo
• It was the 150th game in Messi's career in which he scored AND assisted.
• For the first time in his career, Messi gave assists to 5 different defenders in a single Liga season: Lenglet Alba Dest Mingueza Araujo.
• Messi has given at least 9 assists in each of the last 14 Liga seasons.
• With his 2 goals and 1 assist, Messi has now been directly involved in 150+ goals against teams from the community of Madrid. 108 goals and 44 assists.
• For the first time in his career, Messi has scored 2+ goals in 7 of his first 15 Liga games of the calendar  year.
• The game was Messi's 100th Liga game against teams from the Community of Madrid. He's scored 85 goals and given 37 assists.

It also appears he gave his shirt to Chakla, the Getafe player who scored an own goal, after the end of the game. Hopefully Messi's great form continues in the following games so Barça can win the title. But until then, I'll see you in the next blog.

#OnlyMessiHasMore 2020/21 top 5 leagues edition

The hashtag #OnlyMessiHasMore always comes true when you look at most statistics. Although he currently doesn't lead in goals or assists, he still leads in other important categories ahead of anyone else in the top 5 leagues this season.

In terms of shots, he has the most shots in total (153), shots per 90 (5.75), shots on target (71), and shots on target per 90 (2.67) in the top 5 leagues, showing that he always tries hard to score, and recently he's been very good at it. Ronaldo follows him in 3/4 categories except for SoT per 90, where Muriel is 2nd.

Then there's passing, where Messi leads in numerous categories. These are: Passes into penalty area (119), progressive passes (258), through balls (22), shot-creating actions (197), goal-creating actions (32), and pass targets (2370). That's a total of 6 categories that Messi leads. He's followed by different players depending on the categories, like Bruno Fernandes, KDB, TAA, Müller, and Nzonzi.

Finally, there's carries, which is the number of times a player has controlled the ball with their feet. He has the most progressive carries with 411, and the most carries into the final third, with 146. He's followed by De Paul in both of these categories.

Clearly, although he's not at his peak anymore, he still clearly dominates numerous categories. And still, some people call him "finished", showing how immense his standards are. Anyways, as always, I'll see you in the next blog.

The European Super League is suspended

After all the fuss in the previous days about the European Super League, it appears it has now been suspended after the Big 6 from England, Atlético Madrid, and soon enough AC Milan and Inter Milan have left the competition. Barcelona hasn't made a decision yet and will leave it up for a socio vote. So although Messi technically is still in the competition since Barça hasn't left it, the competition is suspended so it most likely won't be played in the next season. Real Madrid and Juventus haven't left yet either, remaining as the only 3 clubs left standing in the competition.

All will continue as usual in the next season then, with Messi playing in the competitions he's always played including the UCL.

There is not much else to report, since Messi hasn't said anything about the competition yet, only a Gatorade ad, an announcement of his new Adidas Nemeziz boots, and an OrCam ad. With nothing else, to say, 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 European Super League

With yesterday's announcement, 12 founding members have confirmed the creation of the European Super League, with Barcelona being one of them. UEFA and FIFA have strongly rejected this tournament, so its future is uncertain.

All the information about the competition can be found on their website thesuperleague.com, both the new format of the competition and who the 12 founding clubs are. They expect another 3 to come later and 5 to qualify for the competition. According to some sources, it would start in the next season.

There have been threats by UEFA to all the clubs involved, one of the most harsh ones being the ban of all their players from their national teams. This would mean that Messi wouldn't play the 2022 World Cup or perhaps the 2021 Copa América as well.

This news is all around the globe now, and we may be in front of a new era of football. I will do an entry tomorrow detailing Messi's stats against all of the 12 (minus Barcelona) founding members of the ESL. So until then, I'll see you in the next entry.

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