Some people were worried after MESSI failed to make an impression at the Emirates Stadium for the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals first leg against Arsenal.
Some others went farther and said he doesn't perform when he is under pressure and that he is not the kind of player a lot of people are suggesting he is.
Well...when Barcelona conceded early and was heading for elimination trailing Arsenal 1-0, Lionel MESSI responded with an incredible hat-trick in just 21 minutes (the fourth fastest in the history of the Champions League -only bettered by Mike NEWELL, Joseba LLORENTE and Marco SIMONE-).
With Barça in control for the rest of the game, they seemed to step off the gas and save some legs ahead of the crucial 'clásico' against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday.
But...Lio left what was perhaps the most beautiful goal of the night for the last part of the match. In a move that saw him dribble what looked like the entire Arsenal squad of today, plus Tony ADAMS, Sol CAMPBELL and David SEAMAN or whoever the historical figure in the Gunners' history you can think of and slotted the ball between Manuel ALMUNIA's legs for his fourth of the game.
An absolutely dominant performance from MESSI who demolishes the English media argument about Wayne ROONEY being better than him or at a par. There is no doubt whatsoever that MESSI is far superior and he showed them exactly that against an English team (so they had no option but watch him).
Now Barcelona, the defending champions, will face Internazionale in the semifinals.
The Italian giants are hoping to win this competition for the first time since they won it in 1964-65.
Today with an early Wesley SNEJDER goal, they secured their ticket to the big clash against Barcelona and with that, we are guaranteed of at least 2 Argentines playing in the big final at the Bernabeu in May.
Why? Because Barcelona, with MESSI and Gabriel MILITO in their team, will face an Inter side full of Argentines (Walter SAMUEL, Esteban CAMBIASSO, Javier ZANETTI and Diego MILITO). If Barça advance, we've got two Albicelestes in the final, if Inter eliminate them, then we'll have four.
Not only that, this Inter-Barcelona match-up will see the MILITOS squaring up against each other. Like they did when Gabriel used to play for Independiente and Diego was a striker for Racing Club (both teams from the same city of Avellaneda, just South of Buenos Aires).
That early Inter goal completely killed CSKA Moscow and the remaining 84 minutes of the match were pretty dull, with the Nerazzurri keeping the ball and not trying too hard to score a second.
Diego MILITO missed a couple of one-on-ones and was one of the four Argentines in action. He was replaced after 74 minutes by Mario BALOTELLI. The other three (Walter SAMUEL, Javier ZANETTI and Esteban CAMBIASSO) played the whole 90 minutes.
Tomorrow we will see if Martín DEMICHELIS and his Bayern Munich can finish what they started last week and advance to the semifinal, where Lisandro LOPEZ (suspended for the second leg against Bordeaux) and Cesar DELGADO could be waiting for them, if they kill off the match against Fernando CAVENAGHI's team.
In the meantime...let's all enjoy the beautiful present Lio MESSI gave everyone of us (even those who follow Arsenal).
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26 comments:
I'm sure bits and pieces of stats will keep coming our way.
The latest I heard?
Lionel MESSI has become Barcelona's joint top-scorer in the history of the Champions League. With his 4 goals tonight, he equalled RIVALDO.
He also got to 39 goals this season, which is already 1 more than last season (when he won every title and every individual award there was to be won).
He only needs 8 more to tie Barcelona's top-scorer in a single season (the Real RONALDO -47 goals in 1996-1997).
Wanna bet against Lio?
Feel free to send us the bit of stats and info you find on Lio. I'm sure there are many many more.
As always...if you find a better link for a video of MESSI's goals v. Arsenal, paste it here and I'll update the main post.
simply put another "master class" show from messi.....
Messi kept the ball as a souvenir :)
I do not know if any more superlatives can be heaped on Messi.He single handedly put Arsenal to the sword. They simply had no answer to his brillance or genius or whatever term is more appropiate.It is clear that we are bearing witness to someone who wil be one of the all time greats.
What makes Messi so special is that he plays in a more demanding period than a lot of the all time greats and performs consistently to the very highest standards.I feel blessed that i am able to watch him on a weekly basis.He brings so much joy to people all over the world with his artistry.
Barcelona is not a one man team but Messi is their most important player. He replaced Ronaldinho without anyone noticing and its amazing that he was bought for next to nothing. He excels for Barcelona but not for the national team and its about time the right questions are asked. He played well for the National team from 2006 to 2008 but his performances have dipped since Maradona's appointment. These may have more to do with the fact that at Barcelona he plays with players who raise their game and step up to the plate. Whilst with the National team he plays with a number of players who are not of the highest level because they have been selected for non footballing reasons and they drag him down to their level. Anyway that debate is for another days. Thanks for a 6 star performance. God bless
guys,
did you notice that Messi scored on Almunia's right,left,top, and between legs!
its kinda funny if you are not Almunia :)
This kid will seriously make me cry if he brings us the World Cup(Or anybody in general). I get misty eyed when I watch him play for Barcelona when he plays like this. He is just unreal, we are blessed to watch Lionel Messi play this game. We should all be thankful that he wears a Argentine shirt.
Jack!
I am tired of repeating this same old story.
Maradona will do anything, that Messe would not get as big has him. Maradonas best scenaryo will be, that 1986 will be last world cup for argentina.
He enjoy to be god!
And I am very sad about him
Mohd! What a clever point of view! I guess ALMUNIA can't be blamed as he was the one Arsenal player keeping them in with a shot after saving shots left, right, top and bottom at the Emirates. But he leaked in all of them tonight.
Liisi: I threw that theory on the table a long time ago and I hope that's not what's going through Diego's mind. If that's the case, we need someone to urgently tell Diego he'll still be the greatest and better than MESSI even if we do win the World Cup because MARADONA would have one World Cup trophy as a player and another as a manager. No?
I got this from BBC; Just to reiterate how important the national team is for Leo.
"For Lionel Messi, the World Cup coming up is so, so, so important. He says he would give up all his medals for a World Cup medal and this World Cup could be how he is remembered."
p2bn: you forgot to point out that that was a quote from Osvaldo ARDILES (World Cup champion in 1978 with Argentina)
And for the record...I don't think the next World Cup is the one he is going to be remembered by.
He is coming to this World Cup being 22, the same age MARADONA had in 1982 (which was his first WC).
Time, at least for now, is on MESSI's side.
He is only going to be only 22 but the kid can play under pressure. The world is his. I can not imagine he can get any better.
hey guys look at the first goal.messi was pretty clever.his intention was to pass the ball to xavi.he knows that if the ball touches the defender(silvestre) it was going to rebound. that was why he ran....brilliant
It will be interesting to see Diego and Gabriel Milito square up to each other in the semi.
Then Cambiasso, Burdisso and probably especially, Zanetti will have to find a way to control Messi.
What a classic.
Thanks Messi, for putting the Poms in their place
So even contradicting my previous posts, if Messi keeps growing, and growing, and growing, where will the brazilians hide in their own home on 2014? They should have waited a few more years... Messi is a menace for the next two, three World Cups. Another Maracanazo... oh Messi, prove me wrong against the brazilians and I'll love you forever (and every argentine for the rest of the century).
Messi scored his 39th goals in 42 matches. In la liga, his 26 in 27 games. Amazing! What can Maradona do to make him play for Argentina as Messi?
I wanna talk about Gaby Milito. As for now, I don't really expect him to return to the national team. Bendtner goal was his fault. He was stolen. yes, you all might say that he got a very good game after, yes that's because of Messi!
What if there were no Messi. What if Arsenal scored that early goal and then they had played a ultra defensive game which ended up Barca 0-1 loss??? I would rate Milito a 7 yesterday (because he had a huge mistake but played really good after), but had Messi not played in the match, had Barca lost 0-1, his rating would have been 4 (even if after his fault he played exactly like the way he did yesterday). Why 4? Because Barca conceded a goal because of him.
In WC matches, small mistakes count. We can't afford that. Gaby looks good at times, but his concentration is a problem sometimes. I would rather have Demi (although he made a mistake as well last week), Samuel, Burdisso, and Otamendi as the 4 central defenders. I'm talking about something realistic here, I'm not a fan of Otamendi, but I wouldn't mind having him than Gaby.
Principee
English media always wants their player to be the best in the world even though is not even the best in europe. They always praise the likes of joe cole,wayne rooney, kieron dyer, kieron richardson, james milner and etc can be world class player. for me only rooney and joe cole is up to standard.
they create character like that because there is no one to be an icon to compete the talents especially fron brazil and argentina. in my opinion today in five years time span, no star is emerge from english football.
The football in england are so boring. i hate the long ball they play. better to watch sporting gijon than bolton or blavkburn
sir raul
For those who thought Messi played badly in first-leg Arsenal-Barca, read this blog from Tim Vickery 'BBC'. Very insightful...and I agree with him.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/timvickery/2010/04/vickery_14.html
To Principee: How can you not be impressed by Gaby's performance yesterday?!! The guy was a rock in defence! ok he "made a mistake" which was in fact a foul on him under pressure which wasn't given. This defender is World Class for the fact that he was out for 600 days and is playing as if nothing happened. In my opinion, A partnership of Milito and Samuel will solve all our problems in defense.
I don't really like Demichelis, Don't get me wrong He's good but as a back up defender to Milito and Samuel. The problem with Demi that he was at the heart of the defence in many horrible losses received by his team. How many times in the last two years Bayern lost a game 4-0 or more? Well of the top of my head, once i remember them getting thumped 4-0? in the UEFA Cup semi final. In the Bundesliga his team also got beat by Schalke? about 5 - 0. He was also there at the heart of it all when we lost 6-1 to Bolivia! his Defensive mistake cost us the Ecuador WCQ.
I know most will disagree with me but I prefer Gaby Milito start in play of Demichelis in the Wc although unfortunately it's not going to happen. Well First I gotta hope he squeezes in the 23 man squad.
Argentina SHOULD WIN THE WORLD CUP,IT'S A CRIME IF THEY DON'T WITH MESSI IN THEIR TEAM!!!
AND AGAIN THE NONSENSE STARTS TO REAR ITS HEAD
MESSI BETTER THAN DIEGO MESSI PLAYS IN A MORE DEMANDING ERA
I SAY AS FACT NOT OPINION STOP TALKING OUT YOUR ASS
MARADONA PLAYED IN A TIME THAT WAS FAST LIKE TODAY THE LATE 80S INTO 90S BUT ALSO THE TACKLE WAS STILL ALLOWED AND DEFENDING WAS STILL PART OF THE GAME
MARADONA PROBABLY GOT KICKED FOULED AND PHYSICALLY ABUSED MORE IN ONE GAME THAN MESSI HAS IN A WHOLE SEASON
IM GETTING SICK AND TIRED OF THIS IGNORANCE
ADD SOME MORE SOLID INTELLIGIBLE FACT
SPAIN HATED DIEGO THEY LOVE MESSI BIG FUCKING DIFFERENCE
AND DIDNT MARADONA HAVE HIS ANKLE SHATTERED BY THAT SPANISH ANIMAL
PEOPLE ARE ETHER VERY SHORT MINDED OR ARE YOUNG AND STUPID AND HAVE ACCESS TO TOMUCH INTERNET AND TV CHANNELS
MESSI HAS GONE TO YOU HEADS
I LOVE HIM TOO BUT IT DOESNT MEAN I START TALKING CRAP ABOUT WHOS THE WHO IN PLAYER ALL TIME RANKINGS
A BIT OF COMMONSENSE GOES A LONG WAY
NAPOLI ISNT BARSA MARADONA LEGEND WE TALK OF MESSI IN THE SAME BREATH WEN HE HAS EARNED IT
WITCH ISNT YET
I laughed when I saw the headline for this match. I figured Messi was too worn down by the media scrutiny and non stop play to figure as the key player in the match. Writers have run out of superlatives to describe his feats this season.
Bravo Messi !
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