Lionel Messi

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Neville seemed in awe of it. It was pretty extraordinary. He didnt have many great touches, he could hardly run.

But as soon as he came on, the stadium got louder, his team mates looked revitalized, and PSG looked extremely nervous, a couple of dribbles later, boom a goal.

Hell of an impact for an injured sub, it doesn't make his team mates look very good though.
 
He also got an until that point nearly flawless (that free-kick :lol:) Thiago Silva to commit a foul and get booked, which was PSG's only yellow for a defensive player.

And I don't really think the praise was that over the top. This is exactly the sort of stuff that some nostalgic people around here refer to when talking about how players like Maradona and Zidane lifted their teams. (even though he didn't do that much, just 2-3 dribbles and then he stopped moving almost to not aggrevate his injury further)

Essentially: with Messi on the pitch 2-0 to Barça, without him 3-1 to PSG.
 
Danny1982 said:
What we saw yesterday from Messi wasn't far off this.. How many injured players would come on in the second half to turn a game around like he did yesterday?

Messi seems to be Barcelona's only weapon to beat organised defences at the moment.. He's the only one capable of creating havoc in the defence and making them lose their organization for a second, to create chances for himself and his teammates.

Also, I think the effect he has on the players around him is a bit underrated by some..
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I agree. I thought it was an iconic moment. He didn't play particularly well but then neither did Pelé in the same game, and I'm not sure a few bad knocks on your leg is any more debilitating than a badly damaged muscle. He did very little of note but I thought there was a definite presence about him that unsettled PSG, particularly as the game went on. They really struggled to get the ball off him and at points he was almost taunting them. A lot of Barca's play was hurried and edgy in that second half but he came on and calmed things down.
 
Somewhere, someone was comparing it to MJ with the flu. I was thinking more of Willis Reed, from archive footage, when he hobbled back to harrass Chamberlain and will the Knicks to victory.

As soon as Pastore scored and he could be seen taking his warmups off, hard not to have gotten goose bumps

I remember when one of the few faults critics would levy against the player was not being a leader. Shattered that myth as well

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Jaybezia said:
Perhaps you'd like one of our strikers? We aren't going spare and even our 3rd/4th choice Hernandez bags goals
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That includes RVP? :D

Wellbeck, I'd be intrigued by him
 
Rossa said:
I almost had to vomit of the praise Messi got after he came on - he played a ball into Villa, that Villa couldn't hope to score from - what made the goal was a brilliant flick from Villa and then a terrific shot from Pedro. It's ridiculous that Messi got all the praise for the goal!!
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:lol:

He's fecked with an injury and shouldn't even be playing and as you could see, could barely run all that much. Comes on, within minutes he beats a few men, plays a pass inside and they ultimately score.

How threatening did they look before he was on? Fabregas or whoever else that was on at the time when they picked the ball up in Messi's position would have passed it sideways (as per) which would've suited PSG down to the ground. Messi's directness was vital in that goal and his presence alone was vital to Barcelona's rejuvenation.
 
Yeah I don't get the disdain. It's not about what he actually did with the ball, though that did lead to the goal. It's the fact PSG were IN CONTROL. He came on, his Barca team mates went up a gear, and PSG looked nervous and lost control.

It was like Neville said, his sheer presence on the pitch had a huge impact on everything that happened inside that stadium from then on.
 
Rossa said:
I almost had to vomit of the praise Messi got after he came on - he played a ball into Villa, that Villa couldn't hope to score from - what made the goal was a brilliant flick from Villa and then a terrific shot from Pedro. It's ridiculous that Messi got all the praise for the goal!!
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Swaters16 said:
Oh yeah Messi helped turn the game around but the goal wasn't his. It was annoying me how he was being so highly praised for the goal when he made the pass before the assist, and Pedro had a lot of work to do. When Messi made the pass I wasn't impressed but my jaw dropped when Pedro lashed that one out.
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I don't think you guys really understood what the wanking was about?? It wasn't about him playing well or scoring/assisting the all important goal which sent them through. It was ALL about the effect his presence had on the match.

Up to that point, only 1 team was going through to the semis but his introduction alone lifted the Barca players up a level or 2 & as for the goal, he caused chaos in their well drilled defence - taking 3 players out of the equation - something none of the other Barca players were going to do.

I think in the end it was a different side of the Messi effect we saw. He plays almost every match (at least every important match) & a ton of people assume that Messi looks good because he's surrounded by those Barca players.

Neither side of the argument is true of course but IIRC Brwned was talking about such an effect which separates the best ever, from the rest. This kind of effect he must produce for his NT.
 
Probably one of the most compelling pieces of evidence about inspirational players for their respectives teams was that last night. Barcelona looked toothless, lacked invention, the players looked at one another for leadership yet none came, the supporters were anxious which the players definitely noticed, the opposition were comfortable and confident, and then suddenly, Messi steps on to the field and all those problems disappear. Immediately.

Those kind of moments in sports are few and far between. The fact that Messi wasn't even fit makes it all the more impressive.
 
^ I don't mean to take credit away from Messi. On the contrary. My grievance was with the media who were praising Messi for some wonder goal. His presence was important to the match I know, the game changed when he came on but on the news here it was all about Messi crafting some amazing goal to send Barca through and that simply wasn't true. If they talked about Messi coming on to salvage the point I wouldn't complain at all. He was just getting too much credit for the goal, rather than the result.
 
I don't think anybody is taking anything away from Villa or Pedro.. Great pass and great shot by the two of them, but PSG's defence looked very organised the whole game, up until Messi came on.

If you watch the goal again, you'll see how Messi dribbling past those two players (PSG's first line of defence) was what made the third player rush to cover in a hurry, and it was him who should have been guarding Pedro.. The defence was panicking at that moment, and the final pass by Messi to Villa just made the defence crumble almost completely, creating a big space between the first line (who were busy guarding Messi) and the second line (who rushed in panic to guard Villa) leaving Pedro completely free on the edge of the box..

Villa made a great pass, and Pedro fired a great shot into the corner, but I think the difference in the whole sequence (compared to the first 65 minutes of the game) was Messi who made it all possible with that simple run and pass..

Now I don't want to get a bit too philosophical here, because football is more complicated than trying to explain it in a few words, but the fact that Villa and Pedro were in the game the whole time, and were only able to do that 5 minutes after Messi came on, after a little run and a great pass by Messi, I think it's no surprise that everybody is hailing Messi for his contribution for the goal (even the Barcelona players themselves), even though he wasn't the one who put the ball in the back of the net.

Also, the fact that Messi was playing with an injury didn't leave the media with much choice regarding whom to hail for the goal I guess..
 
Here is a very interesting article about Messi trying to score against a Robot made in Japan.

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/50759/robot-goalie-bests-lionel-messi

It uses two tracking cameras housed in the surrounding frame, each capable of capturing video at 90 frames per second. These map a 3D picture of the ball and what direction it is travelling in, based on angle, velocity and spin. A computer then feeds that information to the goalkeeper, which moves to intercept. It is ridiculously hard to fool the computer, so there are few ways to get past it.
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It sounds incredible to be honest, finally a machine to help footballers take penalties and improve their accuracy. Here is the video:



Enjoy.
 
Ridiculous goal that one, I remember that semi final return leg at OT.He came up against Scholesy and the way he got past him, I felt bad for Paul.I was shitting it each he was taking the ball on the right wing and drifting inside
 
To score that sort of goal at 19 is just unbelievable.

There is nothing more that can be said about Messi, it is just a joy to watch him.
 
kouroux said:
Ridiculous goal that one, I remember that semi final return leg at OT.He came up against Scholesy and the way he got past him, I felt bad for Paul.I was shitting it each he was taking the ball on the right wing and drifting inside
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Ouch.
 
kouroux said:
Ridiculous goal that one, I remember that semi final return leg at OT.He came up against Scholesy and the way he got past him, I felt bad for Paul.I was shitting it each he was taking the ball on the right wing and drifting inside
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I was at that game and you could sense that the whole crowd was collectively shitting it every time he got the ball. Don't think any of the other modern greats can induce that feeling.

 
Kevin said:

Ouch.
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Scholesy had the last laugh but it's still painful to watch :D
@ VP: That feeling was crazy, I wasn't even feeling like that about Cristiano when the team recently came up against him. He did end up scoring two goals in the tie but never at one moment I had the same feeling.Messi was a kid back then and wasn't in an optimum physical condition but still ....
 
Ronaldhinio could definitely induce that feeling. To be honest, Messi looked dangerous in that game but from what I remember we did the job on him (and the rest of the team) superbly.
 
Rio and Evra were absolutely immense against Messi during those ties. I remember Messi picking his best XI a year later and including the two of them in it just off the back of how they played against him then.
 
KingEric7 said:
Rio and Evra were absolutely immense against Messi during those ties. I remember Messi picking his best XI a year later and including the two of them in it just off the back of how they played against him then.
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He got absolutely done on this play though...

 
He did, although that was the only time he got done over the whole tie. :D
 
amolbhatia100 said:
Ronaldhinio could definitely induce that feeling. To be honest, Messi looked dangerous in that game but from what I remember we did the job on him (and the rest of the team) superbly.
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I just watched the entire 2nd leg this past weekend and the main difference between the Barca of then and the Barca of now, excepting the players, is the way they play. They played so many long balls back then trying to make something happen. They did not move the ball as well as they do now. I think that is why we were able to get the ball back quicker and as a result keep them of the ball.
 
Well that went well!

I'd like to see Messi play off a traditional front man, someone like Drogba. Would make a good plan B when it looks like he's getting nullified. Of course this won't coincide with Brcelonas current philosophy, which is why I said previously that I'd like to see him at a different club now, or at the least in a different setup.
 
Barca should never have played him when he wasn't ready, he looked like 50% fit at best. I wonder how long these kind of hamstring injuries take to heal fully, really shows how much Barca depend on Messi
 
Looks as if he has already exhausted all his powers to bring a struggling Barca to the semi-final.
 
Ronnie O'Sullivan said:
Barca should never have played him when he wasn't ready, he looked like 50% fit at best. I wonder how long these kind of hamstring injuries take to heal fully, really shows how much Barca depend on Messi
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They don't have a plan B so they have to stick Messi out there even if he isn't even close to being ready because otherwise they could as well give up the idea of scoring goals against good teams.
 
Bringing him on as a sub, would have at least added to the myth and aura.. possibly unsettling Bayern for the last 20 minutes against tired legs and minds but starting him in that state in retrospect wasn't particularly smart.
 
Seems that Tito is even worse than Guardiola about the B plan. Playing Messi who clearly is injured in both games and had made the team so dependent on him. Imagine if Messi would be injured for a season, with these tactics Barca would struggle to even pass the group stage. And consider that even without him they have one of the best teams in the world.
 
Yup. People talk about Barca having been better than ever in the first half of this season but if you were actually paying attention, the signs were there that this collapse of form could happen at any time. Tito was doing what Guardiola always avoided - allowing the team to become more reliant on Messi in exchange for increasing Messi's output. Before January that seemed to be working because Messi was in the form of his life.

But now, with Messi suffering from injury, possibly a bit of burn-out, and a corresponding loss of form, the team finds itself seriously compromised. When Guardiola was in charge, you always felt that you could remove Messi and Barca would still be the best team in the world, incredibly. Iniesta, Villa and Pedro were all capable of stepping up to become the focal point. But now those threats have been nullified and Barca are paying the debt for what they sacrificed in order to so perfectly accommodate Messi earlier in the season.
 
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