The one and Leon-ly: Messi masterclass proves too much for Manchester United
There is only one Champions League anniversary of theirs that Manchester United can say has been honoured in appropriate fashion this season, and that is the 10 years they have spent trying in vain to stop Lionel Messi.
Just another evening when the unconquerable talent of the world’s best footballer was the decisive factor in the end of another United European season, although there were days when that at least came in the final.
United endured a night of agony at the Nou Camp, thrashed 3-0 to lose 4-0 on aggregate.
Sir Alex Ferguson was on the touchline before the game shaking hands with old acquaintances and how different his life, too, would have been without the little king from Argentina and his dramatic interventions in two finals.
Ferguson’s United faced peak Messi, although it can be hard to identify much in the way of a decline on evenings like this when, 10 years on from his first Champions League final triumph over United, they seem no closer to stopping him.
His first goal was so good it seemed to shock United into obeisance and they never recovered. At some point before halftime amid one of those briefly intense Messi interventions he dribbled past Phil Jones twice, either side of sending the inconveniently placed German referee Felix Brych the wrong way with a sway of the hips.
It would be wrong to ignore a vintage Barcelona team performance, an outstanding third goal from Philippe Coutinho and the usual midfield excellence from Ivan Rakitic and the Brazilian, Arthur. There was the restless foraging of Luis Suarez. But it is Messi who routinely reminds the opposition that they are in the presence of greatness and that scrambles their competitive instincts like nothing else. He declares his genius and on the good days, his teammates follow.
All of which is not to excuse some very poor aspects of this United performance, including a David De Gea catastrophe for the second goal. It would be easy to point the finger at the old boys of United’s defence, but Jones, Ashley Young and Chris Smalling can at least say they did what they could. Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial and Alexis Sanchez, a second half substitute, seemed incapable of moving the dial at any point in this game.
Messi might well have scored a hattrick, an overhead kick with his weaker right foot going wide in the second half.
Maybe the home crowd preferred him to save the rest for their first semifinal — most likely against Liverpool, or possibly Porto — since they last won the competition in 2015.
“The image [we gave] was spectacular. This is who we are,” Messi said. “I was fortunate the first went in, I struck it hard and just inside the post. I needed a little more luck on the second. The important thing is that we achieved our
goal. We have taken one more step [to the title].”
After not managing a single shot on target at Old Trafford in the first leg, United looked a lot more dangerous at the start. But after Marcus Rashford hit the crossbar, Messi took over with his tournament-leading ninth and 10th goals of the season.
United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said of Messi: “If you give him space and timing around the goal he will create chances and score.”