Lionel Messi: 5 UEFA Champions League performances that prove he is the GOAT

#2 Real Madrid vs Barcelona, UEFA Champions League Semifinals, 2011

Three of the best levelled by the Argentine in a single frame: Messi floored Marcelo and Ramos before making Iker look like a third-grade goalkeeper

The relationship between Barcelona and Real Madrid was terrible during Jose Mourinho's tenure at Real Madrid. We had a manager who hated his Barcelona counterpart, a player who was trying to prove that he is the undisputed best ahead of a certain Argentine, and Spanish teammates who were willing to kill each other for their crest.

The Los Blancos and the Blaugrana faced each other five times in a single season. Two of them were in the Champions League semis. The first leg had ended 1-1 and both the managers went to the press with some harsh words for the opposition, surprisingly even Pep Guardiola did it. Madrid shut Barcelona down in the first half despite clinical movements from Barcelona and persistence from Messi and David Villa.

Referee Wolfgang Stark had kept a cool head only until the players were leaving the pitch at halftime. The scuffles resulted in Pinto being shown a red card inside the tunnel. It was still 11v11, but Pepe and Dani Alves' engaged in a war before Wolfgang Stark stepped in and produced a red card for Pepe.

Where was Messi? Up until then, he was constantly teasing the defence of Madrid and got floored a lot of times by Pepe and Ramos. Every time he went down, Ramos dragged him up forcibly to get on with proceedings.

In minute 76, he made them pay for the ill-tempered and no-nonsense physical gameplay. A pass across to Ibrahim Affelay in the right-wing and Messi took a page out of Ronaldo's playbook and went inside the box. He got to Affelay's cross before Sergio Ramos' lunging challenge, avoided the challenge and coolly finished past Iker Casillas.

Messi was not done at the Bernabeu though and added more insult to the Los Blancos with a touch of perfection. He dribbled from the halfway line to the goal past Lass Diarra, Xabi Alonso, Marcelo, and Sergio Ramos while finishing it off against Iker Casillas. A solo goal which is till date one of the best Champions League goals ever scored.

Peter Drury's commentary is still music to the ears.

"Messi... away from two, three, four... Wonderful, Wonderful, Wonderful. How good is he? He has wriggled and tiptoed his way to the gates of Wembley Stadium. The best in the world bar none."

The most iconic semifinal performance in the Champions League.