Sealed with a kiss: Lionel Messi’s brace helped Barcelona to a 4-2 victory over Tottenham at Wembley, as Liverpool were beaten by a late Napoli goal
Argentinian genius bags Wembley brace to put Pochettino’s men on back foot for qualification
Miguel Delaney
YOU could say this was a match with everything but, really, it was about the footballer with everything.
The five Tottenham Hotspur players – half their outfield team – that so desperately chased Leo Messi for one of his many stand-out moments at Wembley represented a number far more reflective of this match than the 4-2 final score. It was never that close, just as those Spurs players couldn’t get anywhere close to Messi.
He offered two glorious goals, a masterclass and overall the difference in this match, which is saying something on an evening that also saw a goal as good as that from Ivan Rakitic.
Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino had praise for his fellow Argentinian afterwards, saying: “He’s a fantastic player and not because I tell you but the most important is because Messi in every game shows why he’s Messi.
“His average performance I think is this type of game that is always above everything.”
Privilege
Really, it was one of those performances that was a privilege to watch, and may well end up a privilege to have competed against, even if the Spurs players weren’t feeling like that in the immediate aftermath of the game.
They were instead worrying about the wasted chances, particularly in the rally of the last few minutes, as well as the moments were they just let Barcelona play.
As unplayable as Messi was, there was still a slight frustration for a Spurs team who now have a big job to get through this group.
They initially allowed the Catalans to get so far ahead, and in control, without Messi or his side needing to push themselves. The playmaker was instead mostly just left to pull the strings.
In the first half-hour alone, Messi had delivered three passes of such divinity that they would have made the career highlights of any other player. It was just that the two that indirectly led to goals still shouldn’t have made quite that much of a mess of the Tottenham defence.
With Kieran Trippier bamboozled by Messi’s first arcing pass – in what was Barca’s first attack within the first minute – and Hugo Lloris haphazardly far off his line, Jordi Alba was able to easily play the ball in to Philippe Coutinho to smash it into the corner.
The finish did still require control and quality, but was at once made look easier by the Brazilian and made easier by the ailing Spurs defence.
Pochettino’s backline weren’t quite as culpable for the outrageous second goal, but the frustration there was that they seemed to have a reprieve.
Messi had once again executed an exceptional pass where the angle hadn’t seemed on, but he made it anyway.
The Argentine picked out Luis Suarez, who instinctively and so fluidly chested the ball down for Coutinho. It was set up for the Brazilian to smash in his second of the game, only for him to completely mess it up – for a split-second.
And that might have been for the better of the game.
Coutinho immediately responded and adjusted to swing the ball back towards Rakitic on the edge of the box. The playmaker had already done well to pull that off, but it did seem a bit too high and awkward a bounce for the midfielder. Not so.
What followed was instead about as perfect an exhibition of striking the ball as the sport will see – and one of the great Champions League goals.
With two feet in the air and arching to keep himself over a high ball, he produced a shot of the highest quality. The ball was kept down, too, but only enough so that it veered in off the post.
Either way, Barca had raised the bar – but Messi was to raise it even further.
He had frustratingly hit the post twice in the minutes immediately after half-time but such bare facts hardly tell the story of just how good he was.
With both moments, Messi had just scorched through the opposition half, leaving so many Spurs players in his wake and then letting fly with controlled efforts from the edge of the box that were aimed for the corner.
He was just inches out with the two, but so far above anyone else.
This was Messi at his best, gliding over the pitch with the faintest of touches, and yet still in complete control of the ball, and the game he was playing in.
Spurs did then get closer to Barca, as Harry Kane pulled a goal back with a brilliant driving run and controlled finish of his own, but that only made Messi more determined; more rampaging; more otherworldly.
He went and finished it all off.
That finish started with another of those perfect long-range passes – his fourth of the game, by now – to find Alba, as he so regularly does.
They then produced something that doesn’t come all that regularly. Alba immediately returned the ball, with Suarez and Coutinho both leaving it for Messi to slide into the corner.
It wouldn’t be extreme to describe it as one of the best one-twos the game will see, but it was obviously so much more.
And yet the game still had more. Erik Lamela hit a deflected 66th-minute strike that made the last 24 minutes of normal time rather tense – until Messi, of course, showed he is anything but a normal footballer.
His final say involved one final dummy, Suarez again stepping over the ball for Messi to again just slide the ball into the corner.
That he makes it look so easy is just another of his many supernatural qualities.
There are too many to count. The numbers don’t do him justice. He just needs to be seen. (© Independent News Service)