By his illustrious standards, 2016-17 was a difficult season for Lionel Messi. His Barcelona side had to stand by and watch as Real Madrid won the Champions League for a second successive year and pinched away their La Liga crowd.
Individually, though, it was another extraordinary campaign from the Argentine, who at 29-years-old won his fourth European Golden Shoe, having score 37 goals in Spain’s top flight this season.
He is, however, a player who has been noted for his decisive contributions on the big stage and his unparalleled ability to score following deft dribbles and intricate build-up play. There is no other artist like him on the planet.
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With this in mind, here are his five best goals in the Champions League.
#5 Lyon (11/3/2009)
(Goal on the three-minute mark in the video)
Messi’s breakthrough year in the Champions League arrived in 2008-09 when he scored six goals in nine matches in the competition after having previously managed only two in 12 appearances, including two against Lyon in the group stage. After mesmerising the world of football with his trickery, it was the season that Messi well and truly put the peddle to the metal as he struck a brilliant solo goal against the French outfit.
He gathered the ball on the right touchline, limbered up suggestively and then sprang into action. He left World Cup-winning left-back Fabio Grosso sliding at thin air before driving into the box and exchanging passed with Samuel Eto’o. The finish was so calm – a simple left-footed pass into the corner – it looked like he was simply out on the training ground.
#4 Arsenal (6/4/2010)
Perhaps Messi’s best European performance was reserved for the second leg of the 2010 quarter-final against Arsenal. Barca had been held 2-2 in the first leg and seemed in real trouble when Nicklas Bendtner of all people put the Gunners into the lead at Camp Nou. The English side’s lead lasted only three minutes before the Argentine intervened.
Again it was a move that started on the right and saw the attacker cut inside with an incisive dribble. On this occasion, his pass was not accurate, yet Mickael Silvestre’s failure to control the ball saw it ping back out to the forward, who smacked it with outrageous power past Manuel Almunia and into the top corner. Not only did it prove that Messi is not all finesse, it turned the course of the tie and three more goals from the magical forward would follow in a 4-1 win.
#3 Arsenal (8/3/2011)
Arsene Wenger’s side has the dubious distinction of being Messi’s favourite opponent in Europe – he has scored against them on four separate occasions. A year after his four-goal haul at Camp Nou, he scored another vital goal against the Emirates outfit – this one of arguably even greater quality.
Beaten 2-1 in the first leg away from home and struggling to make an impression in the second, the tie was blown open in first-half stoppage time. Andres Iniesta was the man to make the incursion this time, clipping a deft pass through for the No.10. With almost no room to work, he lifted the ball impossibly over the head of Almunia before turning the ball into an empty goal.
Barca turned the tie around, with Messi getting the winner with 18 minutes left, of course.
#2 Real Madrid (27/4/2011)
Little more than a month after putting Arsenal to the sword, Messi was at it again – this time on an even greater stage with an even better goal, as he helped Barca to a 2-0 semi-final first-leg win over Real Madrid that effectively sealed the tie.
Nothing was on when he gathered the ball outside the centre circle, but a rapid acceleration and a swift one-two with Sergio Busquets suddenly opened up possibilities as Lassana Diarra was caught on his heels. Powering forward with improbable pace, he sprinted away from Sergio Ramos, rode a challenge from Raul Albiol that was designed to take him out and then got his body in front of Marcelo to prod the ball past Iker Casillas. Stunning.
Barca were leading 1-0 at that moment, which arrived with three minutes left, giving Barca a platform they defended and propelling them towards final glory against Manchester United.
#1 Bayern Munich (6/5/2015)
Messi also played a huge hand in winning the semi-final of the 2015 edition in the opening match as he dismantled Bayern Munich with two goals and an assist. The score was locked at 0-0 for over 77 minutes before he opened the scoring, but it was his second, which followed shortly after, that really caught the eye.
Ivan Rakitic’s pass allowed the Argentine to go one-on-one with Jerome Boateng, one of the game’s outstanding centre-backs at that point. Messi swerved one way then the other, leaving the defender sprawling embarrassingly on the ground. With his next touch, he dinked a supreme finish over Manuel Neuer. In one movement, he had made two of football’s finest players look like mere schoolchildren.
