Barcelona get an easy win against Huesca and close in on Atlético Madrid

Yesterday, Barcelona beat Huesca at home 4-1 in what was Messi's 767th game for Barcelona, equalling Xavi's tally for most games played with Barça. He first scored with a good touch and then a rocket that hit the crossbar and entered the goal, then Griezmann scored a very similar goal to his 22 minutes later. A penalty conceded by Ter-Stegen got converted by Rafa Mir, but a great assist from Messi to Mingueza and a nice goal from Messi at the end of the game made it clear who the best team was. Messi's stats were: 2 goals, 1 assist, 1 big chance created, 2 SOT (6 in total), 6 dribbles, 3 key passes, 9 ground duels won, 4 fouls won, 1 tackle, 12 pressures (6 successful), 1 block, 2 crosses, 81 passes and 125 touches which was enough for yet another 10/10 from the GOAT.

Now, Barcelona is only 4 points behind Atlético Madrid in the league with the same amount of points, which is good news, although Real Madrid are only 2 points behind so we're not too safe.

Other than the (dubious) penalty there was not much to criticize from the team, and they were clearly the dominant side for most of the game. Next up will be Real Sociedad away, so a pretty important game awaits us. Until then, 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.

100 entries on this blog!

Since December 5th, 2020, the day I opened this blog, I have done 100 entries (including this one). It has been a pleasure to do daily entries on this blog until today, although no one is currently watching this blog.

Hopefully in the future, when more people watch this blog, you'll see this, and I want to thank you for viewing this as well.

I genuinely like posting on this blog daily with information from Messi, and I hope it is of value for the readers of this blog.

That is all, so until then, I'll see you in the next entry.

Messi and his school

As a kid, Messi went to "Escuela N°66 General Las Heras", located in Buenos Aires 4800 and extending to Azara 700 as well. There was also a park right next to the school called "Plaza José Hernández", where Messi used to go, and now has a mural of himself.

He wasn't the type of kid that liked to study, instead what he liked most were recesses where he could play football with his friends, his favorite activity. And so, he also excelled in PE, getting a 10 on it in 6th grade. He was also very shy. Overall, seeing his grades from 6th grade, he did great in PE, a good job in computers, music, and drawing, and a decent job in everything else. Although not excelling in everything, he managed to not fail any subjects.

Here are some pictures of Messi when he was at this school:

When he went to Spain, he studied at León XIII college in Barcelona. He was recalled to be shy and didn't do too well with the subjects. He ended up dropping out in his 4th year midway through to concentrate fully on becoming a footballer.

In 2005, he revisited his old school on July 9th, 2005 (Independence Day in Argentina). He met with some teachers (both from that time and that he had while he was a kid) and students, and he was certainly happy to see them and the school itself again. Here are some photos from that visit:

In summary, Messi didn't care too much school unless he played football, and he was shy as well. But even then, he had good grades in some subjects and focused in at least not failing his classes, which he didn't. I hoped you liked the information I gave in this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.

Messi's performance in the 2020/21 Champions League

Messi's UCL campaign has unfortunately ended at the hands of PSG, who Barça had great trouble with in the first leg and couldn't compensate in the second leg. Still, it's pretty clear that Messi was the best player in the competition until that point, and I'll prove it by showing his performances.

First, I'll look at his performances per game. In his debut against Ferencvárosi, he first scored a penalty to give Barça the lead, having made an amazing run before earning the penalty. He then pre-assisted Coutinho's 3-0 goal, pre-assisted Pedri's 4-1, and finally assisted Dembélé's 5-1 goal. A 10/10 game from him.

In his second game, against Juventus, he first assisted Dembélé's goal with a great long pass, and then he scored via penalty to end the game 2-0 in Barça's favor. Another 10/10 for him.

In his 3rd game, now against Dynamo Kyiv, he scored a penalty to give Barcelona the lead, and for Piqué's goal, he made a recovery, then made a good pass to De Jong who was unmarked, who then passed the ball to Fati who crossed the ball to Piqué, who scored Barça's 2-0 that ended in a 2-1 victory. A 9.71 according to Infogol.

In his final game of the group stage against Juventus, although Barcelona lost 3-0, he was still the best player on the pitch. I already made an entry about the game, so I won't go into details, but I will add that he got a 9.92 from Infogol, so almost a 10/10 performance despite his team losing by a big margin.

Entering the knockout stages facing PSG, Messi did a good performance with his penalty goal, a 7.7 performance from Fotmob, but unfortunately it wasn't enough and Barça lost 4-1. I also made an entry about this game so there's a more detailed explanation of his performance.

And in the second leg, his missile goal from outside the box wasn't enough to win Barça the tie or even the game, as they tied 1-1 and got kicked out of the competition, unfortunately. I made the entry about the game yesterday, so you can check for yourself.

Now, let's look at his stats overall:

Goalscoring

He scored 5 goals, though only 1 was a non-penalty goal (but at the same time it was a missile and may be nominated for the Puskás Award). He made 37 shots overall, giving him a conversion rate of 13.51%. Out of those 37 shots, 20 were on target, 6 were off target, and 11 were blocked, an accuracy rate of 54.05%. He, unfortunately, hit the woodwork once as well. In terms of xG according to FBref, he underperformed by 1.5, but according to Infogol, he underperformed by only 0.95.

Playmaking

He had 2 assists in the tournament, creating 4 big chances and giving 23 key passes as well. He also made 56 SCA and 7 GCA.

In terms of passing, he made 384 passes, 345 in the opponent's half and 46 in his team's half, 373 short and 11 long, 125 forward, 223 sideways and 85 backward, 7 crosses (3 from open play and 4 from corners), and with an accuracy of 88.68%. Via passing, he made 45 SCA and 4 GCA.

Dribbling

He made 33 successful dribbles out of 54 (success rate of 61.1%), dribbling past 35 players and getting 1 nutmeg as well. He made 5 SCA and 1 GCA via dribbling too.

Defense and duels

In terms of defensive activities, he made 6 tackles (2 in the middle 3rd and 4 in the attacking 3rd), 2 interceptions, 1 pass blocked, 62 pressures (1 in the defensive 3rd, 26 in the middle 3rd, and 35 in the attacking 3rd, 19 were successful).

As for duels, he contested 95. 2 of those were aerial, which he unfortunately couldn't win on either case, and 93 were ground duels, where he won 46 (49.46% success rate).

Average ratings

WhoScored: 8.51

SofaScore: 8.23

Fotmob: 8.75

FootballCritic: 8.66~

Infogol: 9.25

Opta Performance Index: 95/100

Clearly, he had a great performance, but it was cut short by a strong rival early on. I hoped you liked my analysis of Messi's performance on the 2020/21 UCL, and as always, I'll see you in the next entry.

Barcelona are kicked out of the Champions League in the Round of 16

With hopes of a comeback being quite grim, Barcelona faced PSG yesterday in Paris for the second leg of the UCL R16, also being Laporta's first game as Barcelona's new president. Unfortunately, Mbappé shattered Barça's dreams with a penalty goal, and although Messi scored an absolute rocket (Puskás nominee most likely), he unfortunately later missed a penalty (should have been retaken for invasion) and the game ended in a 1-1 draw. Messi's stats were: 1 goal, 3 SOT (7 shots in total), 6 dribbles, 4 key passes, 7 ground duels won, 2 fouls won, 1 interception, 1 tackle, 12 pressures (6 successful), 2 long balls, 3 crosses, 85 passes and 125 touches which earned him a MoTM according to RAC1, even getting a perfect 10/10 according to Infogol.

This was his performance on tape:

Barcelona had a few chances to get a good lead and perhaps even comeback the tie, but just like in the first leg, Dembélé's finishing was disappointing and Lenglet made a big mistake which caused a penalty, and Mingueza getting an early yellow card and almost getting a second one, which got him subbed off only 35 minutes in, didn't make things easier either.

One of the few upsides is that Barcelona can now fully concentrate in La Liga (until the Copa del Rey final with Athletic Bilbao) and make a charge for 1st place if they play their cards well and Atlético Madrid drops some points.

Tomorrow I'll do an entry detailing Messi's performance in the UCL. So until then, I'll see you in the next blog.

The day the impossible happened

It's been over 4 years since Barcelona made an incredible comeback from being 4-0 down in Paris to 6-5 up in the aggregate at Camp Nou. A monumental achievement for Barcelona that has been remembered over the last few years.

After topping their group with ease (6 points clear off of Manchester City), they got PSG (close second behind Arsenal). They knew they wouldn't have an easy route, but they would try their best.

In the first leg, Barcelona was completely dominated as PSG won 4-0 with goals from Cavani, Di María, and Draxler. Messi got 2 dribbles, 3 ground duels won, 1 foul received, 1 cross, 1 long ball, 28 passes, and 51 touches, being probably Barcelona's best player.

After that big loss, some people still had hopes for Barça to comeback the game, although the chances seemed grim

The day came, March 8th, 2017, to play the second leg of the tie. Early on, Suárez scored a header to give Barcelona the lead. Messi intervened as he pressed Verratti and since he couldn't control the ball Suárez ended up heading it in the rebound. There was still a long way to go to comeback the game. After some inactivity, Kurzawa scored an own goal near the end of the first half to give Barcelona hopes. In the second half, Neymar won a penalty and Messi converted from the spot. There was definitely hope left for Barcelona, but Cavani's goal which came 12 minutes later complicated the matters a lot. Due to the away goal rule, Barça now needed 3 more goals to qualify.

There wasn't much action until 26 minutes later when Neymar won a foul near the box (which came from a free-kick from Messi). Neymar took care of the free-kick and converted with a powerful shot to the near post. Then shortly after, Messi made an amazing pass from near the half-way line which ended up in a penalty won by Suárez. Neymar once again took care of the shot and converted. Barcelona was now one goal away from qualifying.

In the dying minutes of the game, Neymar crossed the ball to the middle of the box, and the one that found it was Sergi Roberto. 93:39 was the clock as Sergi made the shot, and it went through the net, giving Barcelona the ticket to the next round when few people believed in their odds. The whole team celebrated while Messi went directly to the crowds, leaving an iconic image.

Having 4 years passed from that historic event, hopefully Barça can do the same thing today and comeback a tie many see lost.