Lionel Messi has recovered the lead role. It was difficult for him to adapt paris st germain, it can be seen from his numbers and his involvement in the Parisian team during the first season. But in this 2022, quite right 18 official matches, has already greatly improved its performance in stats and also in its ascent within a star-studded roster. Everything was going smoothly then, until this Monday in Nyon his worst nightmare appeared on the way to his final goal: the Champions.
The draw for the round of 16 meant that the Bayern Munich of Germanythe one who overshadowed his later years in Barcelona from Spain before the sensational exit of the Catalan team, he is once again his rival in the quest to give PSG the first Orejona in its history, the one that had been so close to him in August 2020 when, in the midst of a pandemic, the Bavarian team tore him to Lisbon.
Messi was not part of that team led by Thomas Tuchel (there were Ángel Di María and Paredes), but Rosario had been part of the bubble that was created to define the Champions League that season. Memory, of course, is not the best.
It is that in those quarter-finals, in a single match, Bayern Munich gave him what, so far, is the worst defeat of his football career: a final 2-8paperonesco, in which he also wore the Barcelona captain sling, without being able to change the course of the game as so many other times.
Until that moment, Messi had almost always been a positive protagonist in duels against the Bavarians. The freshest memory is when he beat Jerome Boateng, on May 6, 2015, for the first leg of the semifinals.
That day, Rosario scored two many for the 3-0 in Barcelona, at 32 ‘and 35’ of the second half. The rest went to Neymar in injury time.
That of memory was the second, when Messi received from Rakitic, with a hitch he broke Boateng’s hip and then stung it before Manuel Neuer’s exit. Barcelona, in addition to the 3-2 victory of the Bavarians in the return, went to the final to be crowned in the final against Juventus.
The only other time he managed to eliminate him was in the quarter-finals of 2009, thanks to another sublime performance: two goals and an assist in the 4-0 that practically doomed the series (in Germany they drew 1-1). Yes, that time he too managed to lift Orejona with Barcelona, after beating Chelsea in the semifinals and Manchester United in the final.
In addition to that 2-8, there was the 2013 series, for the Champions League semifinals, when the 0-4 (also unappealable) in Monaco, where he played the 90 minutes, was insurmountable for Messi and company. Rosario was also replaced in the 0-3 that the Bavarians scored at the Camp Nou.
Now, the story could be very different. Beyond the fact that PSG finished second in a formidable group with Benfica, Messi is at the top, with 12 goals and 14 assists in these three months of competition … and the Qatar 2022 World Cup is coming.
Source: Clarin
