#4 Barcelona vs Getafe, La Liga 2007
One of Messi’s best-ever dribbles came early on in his career, when he was just 19 in fact.
He’d finally announced himself to the world some six weeks before with an El Clasico hat-trick, but the goal that he managed to score against Getafe in April 2007 had the whole football world talking. It was Maradona-esque.
Typically, as was the case with many of these dribbles, he was quickly closed down by the opposition, for fear of what might come next were he allowed time and space.
No matter. With just three touches by the halfway line, he had managed to evade his two closest markers, Nacho and Perretti, and with a huge expanse of green then in front of him, he didn’t need asking twice to motor into it.
Putting on the afterburners, Messi had managed to get to just outside of the penalty area before anyone else had got near to him.
As Belengeur slid in and another was just taken out of the equation altogether, La Pulga was into the penalty area. Drawing the keeper Alexis off of his line, it just needed a sublime finish to make it one of the greatest goals of all time.
Messi duly obliged, unusually, with a right-footed shot.