Today, the Champions is back to celebrate, and it is that this Wednesday in which the protagonists of the round of 16 will be defined, has a more than particular coincidence. Lionel Messi’s PSG will face Juventus today to close Group H, right on the 17th anniversary of Rosario’s first goal in Europe’s top club competition.
It was for the 2005/06 season, in a match between Barcelona and Panathinaikos corresponding to Group C of the Champions League. The match was played at the Camp Nou and Leo was one of the eleven starters that Frank Rijkaard stopped on the pitch. Rosario was just 18 years old, but the context did not burden him in the least.
The ‘blaugrana’ arrived after distributing points against Panathinaikos in Greece, for the third round of the group, in a more than tight match in which neither of them had managed to break zero. At the meeting in Spain they arrived practically even. The ‘Barça’ added 7 points, while the Greeks accumulated 4 units. Both were struggling to get into the top 16.
The team that presented Barcelona that evening, figures of the stature of Puyol, Xavi Hernández, Iniesta, Samuel Eto’o and, of course, Ronaldinho. In the midst of so many figures appeared Leo, who at that time was just in his second season in the first team of Barcelona. Rosario would end up being the key.
From the beginning, the panorama favored Barcelona. Far from suffering the game, the ‘blaugrana’ cast broke zero in the first minute of play, thanks to Dutchman Van Bommel. Before reaching the first quarter of an hour of play, Eto’o extended the lead. Barcelona wins with authority and shows off, but the icing on the cake is still missing.
After half an hour of play, a Messi leaning to the right finds the ball. True to his style, he faced off on the inside, pulling up to three rivals from him, and sought the arrival of Eto’o. The pass was not good and Panathinaikos regained possession, but far from giving the ball lost, Rosario pressed the exit of the Greeks.
The defender of the visit got complicated, and Leo recovered the ball leaving behind the two central defenders of the Greek team. Thus, ‘La Pulga’ enters the area and punctures the ball before the desperate exit of the goalkeeper Galinovic. Like the ball, Messi managed to jump Panathinaikos ‘1’, to finish pushing the ball a few centimeters from the net.
The celebration, quite measured, consisted of a closed fist and a heartfelt embrace with his companions. The first to join the celebration were none other than Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto’o. This is his second goal with the Barcelona shirt, since the first was scored in April of that year, against Albacete and on the 34th date of a championship that would finally end up in the hands of ‘Barça ‘.
The truth is that Lionel Messi would have started to earn a place in the Barcelona rotation that night. After that match, Ciudad Condal’s side closed a near-perfect group stage by beating Werder Bremen and Udinese. Later, in the round of 16, they would leave Chelsea behind and in the quarter-finals they would do the same against Benfica.
Barcelona, increasingly a candidate, was among the 4 best in Europe. Leo has seen minutes in both games of the series against Chelsea, but a tear would leave him out of the last leg of the Champions League. In the semifinals, Barcelona beat Milan and in the final they met Arsenal. With a 2-1 straight away, the ‘Culé’ cast became champion and Rosario’s name appeared on the scorer list.
His record in that Champions League was six games played, one goal and two assists. That stellar performance in the group stage would lead him to the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the one in which Argentina would be eliminated against Germany. It was his second participation in the major continental tournament, and he ended up raising the Orejona at the hands of an unstoppable Ronaldinho.
Source: Clarin
