‘Majestic’ Messi leads approach for Barcelona
Lionel Messi has been doing so many unusual things for so prolonged that nobody can be astounded he noted a accurate week of his attainment in Barcelona, 18 years ago, with a shining hat-trick in Tuesday’s 4-0 home win opposite PSV Eindhoven.
Such is his sovereignty – a word manager Ernesto Valverde used to report a Argentinian’s 32nd-minute free-kick that done it 1-0 opposite PSV – that he has emptied his team-mates of detailed powers.
I have listened Dani Alves contend Messi is “from another planet”, and Xavi Hernández make it transparent his former co-worker is a “greatest footballer ever”. Here, after his 101st, 102nd and 103rd UEFA Champions League goals, full-back Jordi Alba complained, in jest, “all that’s left for us now is to repeat ourselves”.
Goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen added, thoughtfully, “Messi is so mostly a man who opens adult games for us as he did tonight, though there are others on a pitch. We all have to assistance him.”
Which is partial of what done this dusk a small different.
Messi’s eighth UEFA Champions League treble – putting him closer to Cristiano Ronaldo as all-time tip scorer in a foe and one transparent of CR7 in hat-tricks – suggested his side are responding to a guarantee a 31-year-old done on inheriting a captain’s armband from Andrés Iniesta.
“I’m going to do all in my energy to move this beautiful, ancestral prize that we adore so most behind to this stadium” is what Barcelona’s newly allocated skipper told a Camp Nou throng a few weeks ago, on a night of a club’s normal Gamper accessible celebrating their eponymous founder.
Ousmane Dembélé clearly determined a call. His soaring, adventurous run in a initial half led to a tainted around that Messi arced a round past Jeroen Zoet for a opener in this Group B curtain-raiser. It was as good as an assist.
Then a Frenchman cut from left to right opposite Zoet’s area before rocket-launching a 2-0 goal. Messi-esque.
This is applicable because, nonetheless Messi combined a poetic half-volley from Ivan Rakitić’s chip and afterwards buried Luis Suárez’s set-up flick, he can't win a UEFA Champions League single-handed.
Genius, even Messi’s, has the limits. Not in beauty, not in wonder, not in creativity, not in desire. But this good contest rewards teams, not only particular genius. He knows it, and it seems Barcelona are holding note.