Iron Man 3 starts with Tony Stark saying: ‘We create our own demons’ and yesterday, Pep Guardiola came face to face with the monster he had created – Lionel Messi. While the final score said 3-0, the goal tally could’ve been far higher if it wasn’t for Neuer’s heroics.
Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger recently had a tiff about defending, when Mou hit back by saying: ‘It’s not easy. If it was easy, you wouldn’t lose 3-1 at home to Monaco. If he defends well he draws 0-0 against Monaco and wins in Monte Carlo. It’s not easy to prepare a team to defend.’ Even the master tactician would’ve founded it hard to keep Lionel Messi at bay yesterday.
There are times that Messi seems inhuman, and that was in display at Camp Nou. The score would’ve been far worse if it hadn’t been for Manuel Neuer who did well to deny Barcelona time and again. But the story today, was essentially about Lionel Messi who showed that there is nothing that you can do to stop him when he is in this kind of form. We’ve seen Messi do insane stuff but yesterday, he made Bayern Munich’s defence look like a bunch of school kids with his two goals and assist for Neymar. The first goal was a thump from outside the box but it’s the second one that everyone will remember.
Jamie Redknapp summed it up best when he said: ‘What he did to Jérôme Boateng on that second goal was almost illegal.’ He took the ball outside the box, left Jerome Boateng flat on the ground and delicately lofted the ball past Neuer with his weaker foot! Throughout the match Neuer had been a rock, denying Alves, Messi, Neymar and Suarez but it all changed in the 77th minute. Three minutes later, Lionel Messi destroyed any hope Bayern might have had with that wonder goal. Nothing sums it up better than this GIF below:
Kudos to whoever made this GIF. Literally cannot stop laughing. #Messi pic.twitter.com/V0RcdwY55j
— Sachin (@S4FCB) May 7, 2015
Even the last goal was set up by Messi as he picked up Neymar with the majority of the Bayern team in the opposition’s half trying to get a goal. It was harsh for Neuer who had pulled off miracle saves against Suarez and Alves but this was just too much to handle. And we have to remember that this one of the best goalkeepers of his generation, reminiscent of the best in the business like Schmeichel, Buffon, Shilton and Van Der Saar.
And this was the newest chapter in the Ronaldo-Messi rivalry which saw Messi overtake Ronaldo in the Champions League goal count. He now has 77 goals to Ronaldo’s 76 and it really has become impossible to claim that one is better than the other. Perhaps, if Ronaldo helps Real overcome Juventus and meet Barcelona in the final, we can decide once and for all.
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