Lionel Messi: Top 5 performances of 2018/2019 (so far)

#2 FC Barcelona vs Olympique Lyonnais (Agg 5-1)

5th best player in the world?

It was one of the most important matches of Barcelona this season. The first leg against Lyon had ended in a draw. The second leg was to be played at Camp Nou. Both teams were playing with everything at stake. After Cristiano Ronaldo's incredible heroics against Atletico Madrid the night before, the pressure was mounting on Lionel Messi to perform and boy did he perform!

Messi was everywhere on the field that night. He was a constant threat to the Lyon team linking up well with Suarez and Coutinho, making runs which were forcing the Lyon backline to stretch and even allowed the opposition to surround him so as to create space for his teammates. The first goal came in the 17th minute, as Suarez rushed into Lyon penalty box only to be brought down illegally. Messi stepped up under pressure and scored a beautiful Panenka penalty to break the deadlock. The second goal of the Blaugrana was set up by Suarez who passed it to Coutinho who just had to touch the ball into the back of the net.

In the second half, Lyon started putting more pressure on the Barcelona defence. In the 58th minute, Lucas Tousart scored the goal for the French club because of a bad clearance from Busquets. Barcelona's third goal was a piece of magic scored by the magician himself. Messi picked up the ball near the halfway line, dribbled past one player, rushed into the penalty box, executed a perfect fake-shot, succeeded in sending the two defenders to the wrong way. He finished off his run with a shot from his "weak" foot into the left bottom corner of the net. Gerard Pique seeing that momentum was with Barcelona also started making forward runs. One of his runs was seen by Messi. Leo once again dribbled into the penalty box, shot a low cross towards Pique who only had to pass the ball into the net. Ousmane Dembele, the substitute also scored a goal by nutmegging the keeper. The assist once again belonged to Messi.

Nabil Fekir commented, "We played a good game, but history's best player made it impossible for us. When he's not scoring, he's assisting. When he's not assisting, he's play-making. It was impossible. He is impossible."

2 goals and 2 assists. A normal day in the life of Lionel Messi.