A look at Lionel Messi's record in tournament finals

Lionel Messi
A distraught Lionel Messi after the loss against Chile

#4 Copa Del Rey

Lionel Messi
Messi has won 4 of the 6 Copa del Rey finals that he has contested in

Copa Del Rey is a Spain’s premier knockout tournament and Barcelona have dominated it during Messi’s reign. The diminutive forward has taken part in six of Copa Del Rey finals and has helped them win four of them. Both of his Copa Del Rey final losses came against arch-rivals, Real Madrid. The Catalan club could only score one goal in both of those matches and Messi didn’t have any influences in those fixtures. In the Copa Del Rey finals of 2014, Messi endured an uncharacteristically silent night and he only managed to attempt three shots, all of which failed to hit the target.

Three of Messi’s La Copa victories were against Athletic Bilbao (2009, 2012 and 2015) and he scored a total of 4 goals and assisted one in those three matches. He was also declared as the Man Of The Match in 2015, wherein he registered 3 shots of which all the three were on target and two ended up in the back of the net. In the 2012 Copa Del Rey finals against Bilbao, the Argentine was very influential and registered 7 shots (4 on target) and 3 key passes. During the course of the three finals, Messi was involved in five of the 10 goals scored by his team.

The 29-year-old's last Copa del Rey final was in May where Barcelona won 2-0 against Sevilla. Even though Messi failed to score a goal, it was his exquisite passing that led to the two goals. His beautiful footwork and an even better through pass paved the way for an easy finish for Neymar and later another over the top ball led to Jordi Alba’s goal. Messi also registered 6 shots during the game, out of which 3 were on target, while also playing two key passes – both of which resulted in goals.

TournamentAppearancesGoalsAssistsMOTMWinLoss
International400004
UEFA Champions League320230
UEFA Super Cup432231
Copa del Rey643142
Total17955107

All these stats and facts clearly show that Messi is not a ‘choker’ rather a match winner. The 29-year-old has only lost seven out of seventeen finals that he has featured in, unfortunately, four of these came for Argentina. He has played crucial roles in all the 10 finals that he has won (58.9% win rate in finals).

But the fact that he couldn’t win a single final out of the four he has played for Argentina doesn’t do justice to the incredible player that he it, but it certainly raises several questions in the minds of football lovers. Why couldn’t Messi win a trophy with his national team? Was it because he failed to turn up? Or was it because his teammates just weren’t good enough on the night of the final?

It is not at all fair to say that Messi didn’t turn up for the international tournament finals. He did the best he could and was an inspiration to his teammates. It also won’t be correct to say that his Argentinean teammates weren’t good enough as they played as a unit and put up a good show on each of the three occasions, but bad luck and a few poor decisions cost them the three trophies.

It is really a sad sight to see a great player like Messi to retire from international football at the age of just 29. He has made his decision and there’s nothing we football fans could do other than hope that he would reconsider it.

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