MAJESTIC MESSI HAS ECLIPSED RONALDO
IT was a privilege to watch Lionel Messi on Wednesday when he produced a performance that will live long in the memory. There have been times over the last 12 months, particularly at the World Cup, when I wondered whether we had seen the best of him but what he did against Manchester City was magnificent proof that he is still the best around. What he did to City — and the way he has played since Christmas — makes me think he has jumped back above Cristiano Ronaldo in their struggle to be football’s No 1. It will make their battle in this weekend’s Clasico even more intriguing. I am hoping that the Champions League will produce the dream final of Barcelona versus Bayern Munich — I will be in Berlin on June 6 — and it would be fascinating to see Messi in this form in a showdown against his mentor. We all saw Pep Guardiola’s reaction to Messi’s trickery during the game and, afterwards in Barcelona, I was among a group from Sky that went for some dinner when we were fortunate to bump into Bayern’s manager. He gave us a couple of moments of his time and, inevitably, Guardiola was asked whether he fancied coming up against Messi when the quarter-final draw was made. Bayern, after all, have been in outstanding form, scoring goals for fun, but his reaction was telling. ‘No! No! No!’ said Guardiola. ‘If I have to face Messi, I want it to be in one game rather than two!’ If they do happen to face each other in Berlin — and after yesterday’s draw it is not wrong to expect Barcelona and Bayern Munich to reach the semi-finals at least — we could safely say we will be in for a rare treat.