Quotes About Messi

Widely heralded as one of the most gifted footballers on the planet, playing for the “best [team] in the world”, FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi could be forgiven for feeling the heat.

“I don’t think we feel under pressure at this stage,” he said. “I don’t know what result would be good. We want to play a good match and win. The return leg depends on tomorrow’s game but the important thing is to win. We never think of drawing matches because we always play to win. The fans are always there for us, especially in the Champions League, so I know they won’t fail. I am not worried about not scoring recently. I hope I can score tomorrow to help the team and carry on scoring, but it isn’t something that worries me. If I can score, fine. If not, it’s OK. I’m not worried, but it would be a great record to have if I could overtake Ronaldo”.

Convinced that the attacking verve instilled by Josep Guardiola ensures Barça are “well liked everywhere” and equally well set to face Shakhtar, Messi is nevertheless not taking victory for granted. The Azulgrana were, after all, beaten 3-2 at home by Mircea Lucescu’s team in the 2008/09 group stage and were five minutes from being taken to penalties by them in the 2009 UEFA Super Cup before Pedro Rodríguez struck.

“They play good football, they have great players and we have faced them several times,” Messi added. “It’ll be a very even match as usual against Shakhtar. I hope we can gain an advantage to feel more relaxed over there [in the second leg]. I know they are strong; they produce good performances like in the Super Cup. “We know it’ll be difficult. They have very good players, lots of Brazilian players who play good football. It’s a team that has a nice style. We know how to attack and we don’t have a strategy. We know them, but we can’t let them play.”

While it was another impressive attacking display of football from Barcelona to knock Arsenal out of the Champions League, once again it was Lionel Messi who made the difference and showed he is a cut above his peers. Messi scored the opener and the third goal from the penalty spot in the 3-1 win over Arsenal on Tuesday night.

Even by Messi’s own standards this season is becoming something special as he has now scored 45 goals in 39 games. He has eight from eight matches in the Champions League while domestically he has notched up 27 from 23 games. The two goals against Arsenal mean that Messi is now top goal scorer in the history of Barcelona in European competitions aged just 23. He has 33 goals, beating the previous record by Rivaldo of 31, and Luis Enrique, a talisman for the side in the late 1990s only had 27.

Meanwhile Messi has remained remarkably modest about his achievements and has been helped to keep his feet on the ground since his arrival at 13 by the ethos of the club to nurture the youth players into the first team. Guardiola is the first to praise him but also emphasises the work of the players around him. “Messi had another great game but the whole team did really well and we created a lot of goal scoring chances,” said Guardiola, in the press conference after the Arsenal match. “All the headlines will be about the goals from Messi and Xavi but in midfield we were very strong with (Javier) Mascherano and (Sergio) Busquets. We tried to improve from the first leg and we managed to press Arsenal back during the whole game. The only way to improve is to look in the mirror and see what you did wrong and look to correct it. That’s what we did.”

Messi’s teammates were quick to praise him however. “Once again Leo has made the difference as he always does,” said Xavi. “We see it every week but it is still extraordinary what he is capable of.”

Barcelona midfielder Javier Mascherano has delivered a warning to Arsenal ahead of their Champions League clash at the Nou Camp, stating that Lionel Messi could better his four-goal haul from when the sides met last season. The former Liverpool man has insisted that his side can still progress following their 2-1 defeat at the Emirates in the first leg and feels that Messi could be pivotal to the Spanish champions’ chances.

He said: “Nothing surprises me about Leo. He can repeat what he did last year or he could do even better. Nobody can put a limit on the levels he can reach.”

The Argentine has also stated that Barcelona won’t change their much-lauded style of play ahead of the clash, despite knowing that a 1-0 win would see them progress on away goals. He said: “A 1-0 win would serve our purposes but if there is one thing that you can guarantee about this team it is that it is never satisfied. We will go out and try to win the game by the biggest margin possible. This match will go a long way to marking our season. We have to treat the game as a final. Regardless of whether it is the most important game of the season or not, you can always guarantee we will play it exactly the same way – if we have to go down, then we will go down playing the Barcelona way. They are not stupid. They have an advantage and will try to protect that lead. We can’t make the mistake of thinking, because they know how to play attacking football, that they don’t know how to defend.”

Mascherano also spoke of the threat that Cesc Fabregas presented his side, adding: “When Cesc is not there, you really notice it. We can’t afford to have him comfortable in the game. Hopefully the players who are comfortable on the pitch will be Xavi and Iniesta.”

The Man City midfielder Yaya Toure, who arrived at Eastlands from Barcelona in the summer, has great admiration for his captain Carlos Tevez but doesn’t believe he can compare to Barca’s Lionel Messi. Tevez has scored 50 goals in just 73 games for City, but Yaya doesn’t think he has the dribbling skills of he Argentinian team-mate.

“Carlos is a really important player for this club, you can say that. “But I don’t think you can compare him with Messi though, because Messi an amazing player. “Carlos is amazing too, he has lots of quality and scores really important goals for us. “He’s one of the best I’ve played alongside. He’s a fantastic player for City. “His record is fantastic. He’s typical of a top striker, he works so hard and every day he wants to improve. “For this club, for the fans here, he’s a very big player. “But Messi is fantastic because he can beat two or three players at any moment. Even when he’s quiet he’s still dangerous.”

There are not many people that would disagree, except perhaps Tevez! But Yaya does believe that Man City will slowly improve and will become as good as Barcelona in a couple of years.

“At the moment you can’t compare Barcelona with City because Barca are at the top and have top quality players,” said Toure, who played at the Nou Camp for three years. “Lionel Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Dani Alves, they’re all fantastic. “But City are still signing new players. In a couple of years we could maybe be better than Barcelona. “What we need to continue to do is work hard and try to continue to improve with every game. “I keep saying to my brother and my family that City have great players but we need to continue to work hard to become a great team.”