Lionel Messi’s five best matches – From scoring four against Arsenal to THAT Bayern Munich game

On Sunday evening, Lionel Messi will take to the field for his most important game.

He will lead out Argentina in the World Cup final, his last ever match at the tournament and a chance for immortalisation against defending champions France.

While not quite vintage Messi, this has been a particularly impressive World Cup for the 35-year-old, and ahead of the game we decided to look back on some of the most impressive performances in his career.

Oh, and it’s worth stating that these are in no particular order…

April & May 2011: Champions League semi-final v Real Madrid

We very nearly put the 2006-07 Clasico in here, the game that really felt as if Messi was announcing himself to the world, when he scored a stunning late winner to complete a hat-trick and rescue at draw for Barcelona… but we’ve gone for the Champions League semi-final in 2010-11 to kick things off.

Part of the reason for choosing this is because of how important these two games were. This was the first time these eternal rivals had ever met in Europe. It was one of the best teams Jose Mourinho put together during his time in Spain and, unlike the past few seasons, these two sides absolutely loathed each other.

Mourinho and Pep Guardiola didn’t do anything to put the fire out, if anything the way they seemed to naturally antagonise the other added fuel to the affair. Add in the likes of Pepe, Sergio Ramos, Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique and there’s a pretty good argument that the late 2000s/early 2010s is as fiery as the Clasico has ever been. It’s always a must-watch game, but at this stage it was the sort of thing you set your calendar by.

Now this probably wasn’t the best game Messi has ever played, credit to Mourinho and his team for the way they stifled him. But this was one of the nights that proved that even with one of the best defensive coaches of a generation, you can’t stop Messi when he turns it on.

Having opened the scoring late in the second half, the defining moment came in the 87th minute. Cutting in from the right just inside the opposition half, Messi played a casual one-two with Busquets and the Madrid defence braced itself. They were not prepared.

Messi skipped past the two midfield players then he sprinted away from one centre-back, another burst of acceleration took him away from the other, then he somehow held off pressure coming from the left-back, centre-back and goalkeeper to slot the ball into the corner with his right foot. Real Madrid were dead in the water and Barca would go on to once more beat Manchester United in the final (as we’ll see later) to cement their legacy as one of the greatest sides we have ever seen.

April 2010: Champions League quarter-final v Arsenal

For the most part, the games we have chosen in this list have been part of remarkable seasons from Lionel Messi. In fact two of them are from the same season, but this is not the case. In April 2010, Messi scored four times in a remarkable destruction of Arsene Wenger’s plucky Arsenal side, but yet shortly he and Barcelona would be completely dismantled in the following round of the Champions League by one of Mourinho’s greatest performances, harnessing his Inter Milan team into one of the most astonishing treble-winners we’ve ever seen.

But that’s for another day. Let’s talk about this performance against Arsenal.

Here’s the context: the first leg at the Emirates had ended 2-2 but it was a game Arsenal were lucky to still be in when Wenger threw on Theo Walcott as a second-half sub, with Barca two goals to the good thanks to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and only the heroics of Manuel Almunia preventing the score from becoming embarrassing.

But Walcott’s pace changed the game, he pulled one back and Cesc Fabregas levelled matters from the penalty spot, where Carles Puyol was sent off and missed the second leg.

That second leg got off to a rollicking start when Nicklas Bendtner put Arsenal 1-0 up on 18 minutes and 3-2 ahead on aggregate.

Then Messi took over.

The Argentine, playing a little bit more centrally than the first leg, picked up a pass from Pedro, and tried to play in Xavi. However he actually ended up playing a clever one-two with Arsenal defender Mikael Silvestre before smashing past Almunia. The second was started by Messi, who played in Eric Abidal. The Frenchman’s cutback was partially cleared but Pedro had the presence of mind to slip it to the on-rushing Messi, who touched it round the defender with his right, and then dinked it over Almunia. The third was another chip, coming after a missed header allowed him to be played through on goal. The fourth came from a catastrophic defensive line and while he needed a second attempt after Almunia saved the first, it completed a remarkable performance.

This came at a time when English audiences still weren’t convinced by Messi, preferring mostly to side with Cristiano Ronaldo. But this performance, the 2009 Champions League final and our next match, went a long way to changing opinions.

May 2011: Champions League final v Manchester United

We could have picked 2009 or 2011, but the performance from Messi in particular in the latter final was simply a thing of majesty, and cemented both his and Barcelona’s place as the best in the world, possibly the best ever.

It was an absolute schooling of a team that was one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s best at Manchester United. Over two finals in 2009 and 2011 Barcelona hammered United 5-1 on aggregate, and United were lucky to get one. Edwin van der Sar, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Ryan Giggs, Michael Carrick, Park Ji-Sung, Wayne Rooney. This was not the team Ferguson left, this was still a team that was dominant in England.

But they had no answer at all to the midfield trio of Busquets, Andres Iniesta and Xavi, and the magical attack led by Messi, ably flanked by Pedro and David Villa. Messi was everywhere in this final, tormenting both the midfield and the defence with his usual array of jinks, mazy dribbles and masterful passing.

It was an astonishingly brutal reminder that when he wanted to take over a game there was absolutely nothing you could to stop it – it didn’t matter who you had in your team.

May 2015: Champions League semi-final v Bayern Munich

Okay, there’s an argument to be made that this is the best we’ve ever seen from Messi. As part of the all-conquering MSN attack alongside Luis Suarez and Neymar in Luis Enrique’s juggernaut team, Messi put in astonishing performances across the season, but nothing came close to May 6, 2015.

Guardiola made his first return to Camp Nou since retiring, now in charge of German behemoths Bayern Munich and looking to cement his legacy with a Champions League win away from Barcelona.

It was Guardiola’s second season in Germany, and he had a shiny new toy to play with: Polish striker Robert Lewandowski arriving on a free transfer from rivals Borussia Dortmund. It wasn’t just him either, Xabi Alonso came in too as Guardiola looked to build a team that he felt could push them over the top. And it looked as if it was going to work.

Until they ran into Messi.

In fact they had extreme difficulty containing Barcelona as a whole throughout their game, a seemingly suicidal high line getting exploited regularly by the fearsome home attack. But Bayern held out, and with a little under 15 minutes to go it looked as if they would cling on for a draw, and maybe even snatch an away goal. But within three minutes their hopes were in tatters.

First Messi received the ball from Alves, cut inside and belted the ball low, past Manuel Neuer. A fine goal to be sure, but it was only a taster of what was to come…

Ivan Rakitic starts it by dinking a little ball through and Messi charges into the box, shaping as if he is going to, once more, open his body and go for the far corner. But as Bayern defender Jerome Boateng adjusts, Messi feints and goes the other way, leaving the Germany international in a heap on the floor, wondering what had happened.

Out comes Neuer, one of the more intimidating goalkeeper in world football. Rather than shimmy past him or cut the ball across, Messi lifts the ball over the World Cup-winning goalkeeper, with his *weaker* foot. The cherry on top is watching Rafinha try to contort himself to try and keep the ball out. It was a remarkable goal in a remarkable season, that left us with an astonishing photo of Messi watching the ball go over the helpless Neuer.

April 2017: La Liga v Real Madrid

But it is not the definitive Messi photo.

No, that came two years later in what was perhaps his best performance of the Clasico.

Of course every Clasico matters, but in the 2016-17 season the second Clasico of the season felt absolutely crucial. Barcelona arrived at the Bernabeu three points behind their rivals, with Madrid having a game in hand. Anything other than a win would basically be game over. The game hot on the heels of Champions League exit at the hands of Juventus. The pressure was on.

Messi scored Barca’s first, a fine goal in response to the opener from Casemiro, that saw him dance past Luka Modric and Dani Carvajal before Rakitic put the Catalans ahead in the second half. The game was fierce, Messi got clattered from behind by Casemiro early on, and briefly had to leave the pitch after receiving an elbow from Marcelo that went unpunished. Not to mention everyone’s favourite villain Ramos getting a red card. Nevertheless, things were looking good for Barcelona, until a late leveller from James Rodriguez looked to have shattered their title hopes.

Spoiler alert: The hopes weren’t shattered.

In the second (and final) minute of added time Barcelona caught Madrid cold on the counter. A charge forward by Sergi Roberto found the ball played out Andre Gomes, who had Jordi Alba on the left in the final third as the overlap option. There were three Real Madrid defenders seeming to mark one attacker, with Messi and Rakitic free out on the right. It seems ripe for a deep cross to the back post.

When Messi saw the ball played through to Alba, his casual jog became a determined sprint, inwards towards the middle of the penalty box just on the edge. His telepathic connection with Alba was in full force as the full-back cut the ball back where Messi met it just inside the box, nonchalantly curling it past a helpless Keylor Navas.

Cue one of the most remarkable images we have ever seen in football as Messi stood in front of the shell-shocked Santiago Bernabeu, and held up his shirt in front of them showing them the iconic name and number. It’s hard not to get goosebumps watching it.

Just an extraordinary footballing moment.