A mesmerising run, a phenomenal free-kick and an unexpected header make the final cut
This is a dangerous topic – let’s agree that from the beginning. Lionel Messi has hit the net 129 times in world football’s greatest club competition since his Champions League debut 21 years ago, so picking a ‘best five’ is always going to be an incendiary task.
Not only is football a deeply subjective sport, in which we often struggle to agree on what is or isn’t offside, but there are also literally 275,234,400 unique combinations to select a top five out of 129 goals. I’d say that disagreement is inevitable. Fair enough?
Nevertheless, here goes. And, listing them in chronological order, let’s start with the 2009 Champions League final, where Messi sealed a 2-0 win against Manchester United. He’d never previously scored against English opposition, but that all changed when Xavi Hernández lofted a cross beyond Rio Ferdinand to the diminutive Argentinian, who looped an astonishing header over towering goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.
It was impish, technically brilliant, decisive – and utterly memorable for the celebration too, as Messi kissed the right boot that had popped off when he landed. I once asked Xavi why he’d crossed to the smallest man on the pitch. “Because Leo’s the best header of the ball in our team,” he said. “In fact, he’s better than all of us at everything.”
Two years later in the semi-finals, he showed how his dribbling was also on another level. Receiving a shunted one-two pass from Sergio Busquets (who jokingly claimed the assist), Barça’s No10 slalomed through a string of Real Madrid players before finishing off with his ‘weaker’ right foot. “If you can dribble past half the Madrid team in a match like this, it’s automatically a great goal,” the late Tito Vilanova once told me. The dismay and astonishment on Iker Casillas’ face spoke volumes as well.
Having helped Barcelona reach the 2011 decider, Messi then left his mark on it with a vicious, whipped shot beyond Van der Sar that triggered manic celebrations and put his side ahead – in a match that many remember as a comfortable win. When making the film Take the Ball Pass the Ball, we asked the great man why he had celebrated so wildly, and he explained it was “relief”. While the world believed Barcelona were cruising, Messi was nervous. So he took charge.
All great goals, but perhaps the true Messi pièce de résistance came in the 2014/15 semi-finals, the ball finishing in the net and Bayern defender Jérôme Boateng finishing on his backside. It’s certainly an iconic moment, but the context matters too. Barça were up against their old maestro Pep Guardiola as they chased a second treble in six years, and the Camp Nou first leg was a classic – high-risk, end-to-end stuff, with the scoreline 0-0 until Messi fired in on 77 minutes. His second was even better, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner making Boateng believe he would cut in on his stronger left foot only to go right instead, sending the unbalanced centre-back tumbling before lofting a beautiful finish over Manuel Neuer with that same right boot.
Messi went on to win his fourth and final Champions League title that season, but he was not done lifting fans from their seats. Eighty-two minutes into their 2018/19 semi-final opener against Liverpool and it felt to all the world – except the Reds’ most ardent fans – that the little magician had sent Barça through to another showpiece. His free-kick to make it 3-0 defied human physics. A man of his proportions shouldn’t, in theory, have been able to strike a football that far, that hard and that accurately, but that’s precisely what he did, locating the top-right corner of Alisson Becker’s net from 30 metres. The raucous joy of his team-mates signified that they, like us, could not believe their eyes.
So, there you have it. Your own personal selection may well differ, but surely we can all agree on a final message… Thanks for the memories, Leo.
A mesmerising run, a phenomenal free-kick and an unexpected header make the final cut
This is a dangerous topic – let’s agree that from the beginning. Lionel Messi has hit the net 129 times in world football’s greatest club competition since his Champions League debut 21 years ago, so picking a ‘best five’ is always going to be an incendiary task.
Not only is football a deeply subjective sport, in which we often struggle to agree on what is or isn’t offside, but there are also literally 275,234,400 unique combinations to select a top five out of 129 goals. I’d say that disagreement is inevitable. Fair enough?
Nevertheless, here goes. And, listing them in chronological order, let’s start with the 2009 Champions League final, where Messi sealed a 2-0 win against Manchester United. He’d never previously scored against English opposition, but that all changed when Xavi Hernández lofted a cross beyond Rio Ferdinand to the diminutive Argentinian, who looped an astonishing header over towering goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.
It was impish, technically brilliant, decisive – and utterly memorable for the celebration too, as Messi kissed the right boot that had popped off when he landed. I once asked Xavi why he’d crossed to the smallest man on the pitch. “Because Leo’s the best header of the ball in our team,” he said. “In fact, he’s better than all of us at everything.”
Two years later in the semi-finals, he showed how his dribbling was also on another level. Receiving a shunted one-two pass from Sergio Busquets (who jokingly claimed the assist), Barça’s No10 slalomed through a string of Real Madrid players before finishing off with his ‘weaker’ right foot. “If you can dribble past half the Madrid team in a match like this, it’s automatically a great goal,” the late Tito Vilanova once told me. The dismay and astonishment on Iker Casillas’ face spoke volumes as well.
Having helped Barcelona reach the 2011 decider, Messi then left his mark on it with a vicious, whipped shot beyond Van der Sar that triggered manic celebrations and put his side ahead – in a match that many remember as a comfortable win. When making the film Take the Ball Pass the Ball, we asked the great man why he had celebrated so wildly, and he explained it was “relief”. While the world believed Barcelona were cruising, Messi was nervous. So he took charge.
All great goals, but perhaps the true Messi pièce de résistance came in the 2014/15 semi-finals, the ball finishing in the net and Bayern defender Jérôme Boateng finishing on his backside. It’s certainly an iconic moment, but the context matters too. Barça were up against their old maestro Pep Guardiola as they chased a second treble in six years, and the Camp Nou first leg was a classic – high-risk, end-to-end stuff, with the scoreline 0-0 until Messi fired in on 77 minutes. His second was even better, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner making Boateng believe he would cut in on his stronger left foot only to go right instead, sending the unbalanced centre-back tumbling before lofting a beautiful finish over Manuel Neuer with that same right boot.
Messi went on to win his fourth and final Champions League title that season, but he was not done lifting fans from their seats. Eighty-two minutes into their 2018/19 semi-final opener against Liverpool and it felt to all the world – except the Reds’ most ardent fans – that the little magician had sent Barça through to another showpiece. His free-kick to make it 3-0 defied human physics. A man of his proportions shouldn’t, in theory, have been able to strike a football that far, that hard and that accurately, but that’s precisely what he did, locating the top-right corner of Alisson Becker’s net from 30 metres. The raucous joy of his team-mates signified that they, like us, could not believe their eyes.
So, there you have it. Your own personal selection may well differ, but surely we can all agree on a final message… Thanks for the memories, Leo.
A mesmerising run, a phenomenal free-kick and an unexpected header make the final cut
This is a dangerous topic – let’s agree that from the beginning. Lionel Messi has hit the net 129 times in world football’s greatest club competition since his Champions League debut 21 years ago, so picking a ‘best five’ is always going to be an incendiary task.
Not only is football a deeply subjective sport, in which we often struggle to agree on what is or isn’t offside, but there are also literally 275,234,400 unique combinations to select a top five out of 129 goals. I’d say that disagreement is inevitable. Fair enough?
Nevertheless, here goes. And, listing them in chronological order, let’s start with the 2009 Champions League final, where Messi sealed a 2-0 win against Manchester United. He’d never previously scored against English opposition, but that all changed when Xavi Hernández lofted a cross beyond Rio Ferdinand to the diminutive Argentinian, who looped an astonishing header over towering goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.
It was impish, technically brilliant, decisive – and utterly memorable for the celebration too, as Messi kissed the right boot that had popped off when he landed. I once asked Xavi why he’d crossed to the smallest man on the pitch. “Because Leo’s the best header of the ball in our team,” he said. “In fact, he’s better than all of us at everything.”
Two years later in the semi-finals, he showed how his dribbling was also on another level. Receiving a shunted one-two pass from Sergio Busquets (who jokingly claimed the assist), Barça’s No10 slalomed through a string of Real Madrid players before finishing off with his ‘weaker’ right foot. “If you can dribble past half the Madrid team in a match like this, it’s automatically a great goal,” the late Tito Vilanova once told me. The dismay and astonishment on Iker Casillas’ face spoke volumes as well.
Having helped Barcelona reach the 2011 decider, Messi then left his mark on it with a vicious, whipped shot beyond Van der Sar that triggered manic celebrations and put his side ahead – in a match that many remember as a comfortable win. When making the film Take the Ball Pass the Ball, we asked the great man why he had celebrated so wildly, and he explained it was “relief”. While the world believed Barcelona were cruising, Messi was nervous. So he took charge.
All great goals, but perhaps the true Messi pièce de résistance came in the 2014/15 semi-finals, the ball finishing in the net and Bayern defender Jérôme Boateng finishing on his backside. It’s certainly an iconic moment, but the context matters too. Barça were up against their old maestro Pep Guardiola as they chased a second treble in six years, and the Camp Nou first leg was a classic – high-risk, end-to-end stuff, with the scoreline 0-0 until Messi fired in on 77 minutes. His second was even better, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner making Boateng believe he would cut in on his stronger left foot only to go right instead, sending the unbalanced centre-back tumbling before lofting a beautiful finish over Manuel Neuer with that same right boot.
Messi went on to win his fourth and final Champions League title that season, but he was not done lifting fans from their seats. Eighty-two minutes into their 2018/19 semi-final opener against Liverpool and it felt to all the world – except the Reds’ most ardent fans – that the little magician had sent Barça through to another showpiece. His free-kick to make it 3-0 defied human physics. A man of his proportions shouldn’t, in theory, have been able to strike a football that far, that hard and that accurately, but that’s precisely what he did, locating the top-right corner of Alisson Becker’s net from 30 metres. The raucous joy of his team-mates signified that they, like us, could not believe their eyes.
So, there you have it. Your own personal selection may well differ, but surely we can all agree on a final message… Thanks for the memories, Leo.
A mesmerising run, a phenomenal free-kick and an unexpected header make the final cut
This is a dangerous topic – let’s agree that from the beginning. Lionel Messi has hit the net 129 times in world football’s greatest club competition since his Champions League debut 21 years ago, so picking a ‘best five’ is always going to be an incendiary task.
Not only is football a deeply subjective sport, in which we often struggle to agree on what is or isn’t offside, but there are also literally 275,234,400 unique combinations to select a top five out of 129 goals. I’d say that disagreement is inevitable. Fair enough?
Nevertheless, here goes. And, listing them in chronological order, let’s start with the 2009 Champions League final, where Messi sealed a 2-0 win against Manchester United. He’d never previously scored against English opposition, but that all changed when Xavi Hernández lofted a cross beyond Rio Ferdinand to the diminutive Argentinian, who looped an astonishing header over towering goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.
It was impish, technically brilliant, decisive – and utterly memorable for the celebration too, as Messi kissed the right boot that had popped off when he landed. I once asked Xavi why he’d crossed to the smallest man on the pitch. “Because Leo’s the best header of the ball in our team,” he said. “In fact, he’s better than all of us at everything.”
Two years later in the semi-finals, he showed how his dribbling was also on another level. Receiving a shunted one-two pass from Sergio Busquets (who jokingly claimed the assist), Barça’s No10 slalomed through a string of Real Madrid players before finishing off with his ‘weaker’ right foot. “If you can dribble past half the Madrid team in a match like this, it’s automatically a great goal,” the late Tito Vilanova once told me. The dismay and astonishment on Iker Casillas’ face spoke volumes as well.
Having helped Barcelona reach the 2011 decider, Messi then left his mark on it with a vicious, whipped shot beyond Van der Sar that triggered manic celebrations and put his side ahead – in a match that many remember as a comfortable win. When making the film Take the Ball Pass the Ball, we asked the great man why he had celebrated so wildly, and he explained it was “relief”. While the world believed Barcelona were cruising, Messi was nervous. So he took charge.
All great goals, but perhaps the true Messi pièce de résistance came in the 2014/15 semi-finals, the ball finishing in the net and Bayern defender Jérôme Boateng finishing on his backside. It’s certainly an iconic moment, but the context matters too. Barça were up against their old maestro Pep Guardiola as they chased a second treble in six years, and the Camp Nou first leg was a classic – high-risk, end-to-end stuff, with the scoreline 0-0 until Messi fired in on 77 minutes. His second was even better, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner making Boateng believe he would cut in on his stronger left foot only to go right instead, sending the unbalanced centre-back tumbling before lofting a beautiful finish over Manuel Neuer with that same right boot.
Messi went on to win his fourth and final Champions League title that season, but he was not done lifting fans from their seats. Eighty-two minutes into their 2018/19 semi-final opener against Liverpool and it felt to all the world – except the Reds’ most ardent fans – that the little magician had sent Barça through to another showpiece. His free-kick to make it 3-0 defied human physics. A man of his proportions shouldn’t, in theory, have been able to strike a football that far, that hard and that accurately, but that’s precisely what he did, locating the top-right corner of Alisson Becker’s net from 30 metres. The raucous joy of his team-mates signified that they, like us, could not believe their eyes.
So, there you have it. Your own personal selection may well differ, but surely we can all agree on a final message… Thanks for the memories, Leo.
A mesmerising run, a phenomenal free-kick and an unexpected header make the final cut
This is a dangerous topic – let’s agree that from the beginning. Lionel Messi has hit the net 129 times in world football’s greatest club competition since his Champions League debut 21 years ago, so picking a ‘best five’ is always going to be an incendiary task.
Not only is football a deeply subjective sport, in which we often struggle to agree on what is or isn’t offside, but there are also literally 275,234,400 unique combinations to select a top five out of 129 goals. I’d say that disagreement is inevitable. Fair enough?
Nevertheless, here goes. And, listing them in chronological order, let’s start with the 2009 Champions League final, where Messi sealed a 2-0 win against Manchester United. He’d never previously scored against English opposition, but that all changed when Xavi Hernández lofted a cross beyond Rio Ferdinand to the diminutive Argentinian, who looped an astonishing header over towering goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.
It was impish, technically brilliant, decisive – and utterly memorable for the celebration too, as Messi kissed the right boot that had popped off when he landed. I once asked Xavi why he’d crossed to the smallest man on the pitch. “Because Leo’s the best header of the ball in our team,” he said. “In fact, he’s better than all of us at everything.”
Two years later in the semi-finals, he showed how his dribbling was also on another level. Receiving a shunted one-two pass from Sergio Busquets (who jokingly claimed the assist), Barça’s No10 slalomed through a string of Real Madrid players before finishing off with his ‘weaker’ right foot. “If you can dribble past half the Madrid team in a match like this, it’s automatically a great goal,” the late Tito Vilanova once told me. The dismay and astonishment on Iker Casillas’ face spoke volumes as well.
Having helped Barcelona reach the 2011 decider, Messi then left his mark on it with a vicious, whipped shot beyond Van der Sar that triggered manic celebrations and put his side ahead – in a match that many remember as a comfortable win. When making the film Take the Ball Pass the Ball, we asked the great man why he had celebrated so wildly, and he explained it was “relief”. While the world believed Barcelona were cruising, Messi was nervous. So he took charge.
All great goals, but perhaps the true Messi pièce de résistance came in the 2014/15 semi-finals, the ball finishing in the net and Bayern defender Jérôme Boateng finishing on his backside. It’s certainly an iconic moment, but the context matters too. Barça were up against their old maestro Pep Guardiola as they chased a second treble in six years, and the Camp Nou first leg was a classic – high-risk, end-to-end stuff, with the scoreline 0-0 until Messi fired in on 77 minutes. His second was even better, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner making Boateng believe he would cut in on his stronger left foot only to go right instead, sending the unbalanced centre-back tumbling before lofting a beautiful finish over Manuel Neuer with that same right boot.
Messi went on to win his fourth and final Champions League title that season, but he was not done lifting fans from their seats. Eighty-two minutes into their 2018/19 semi-final opener against Liverpool and it felt to all the world – except the Reds’ most ardent fans – that the little magician had sent Barça through to another showpiece. His free-kick to make it 3-0 defied human physics. A man of his proportions shouldn’t, in theory, have been able to strike a football that far, that hard and that accurately, but that’s precisely what he did, locating the top-right corner of Alisson Becker’s net from 30 metres. The raucous joy of his team-mates signified that they, like us, could not believe their eyes.
So, there you have it. Your own personal selection may well differ, but surely we can all agree on a final message… Thanks for the memories, Leo.
A mesmerising run, a phenomenal free-kick and an unexpected header make the final cut
This is a dangerous topic – let’s agree that from the beginning. Lionel Messi has hit the net 129 times in world football’s greatest club competition since his Champions League debut 21 years ago, so picking a ‘best five’ is always going to be an incendiary task.
Not only is football a deeply subjective sport, in which we often struggle to agree on what is or isn’t offside, but there are also literally 275,234,400 unique combinations to select a top five out of 129 goals. I’d say that disagreement is inevitable. Fair enough?
Nevertheless, here goes. And, listing them in chronological order, let’s start with the 2009 Champions League final, where Messi sealed a 2-0 win against Manchester United. He’d never previously scored against English opposition, but that all changed when Xavi Hernández lofted a cross beyond Rio Ferdinand to the diminutive Argentinian, who looped an astonishing header over towering goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.
It was impish, technically brilliant, decisive – and utterly memorable for the celebration too, as Messi kissed the right boot that had popped off when he landed. I once asked Xavi why he’d crossed to the smallest man on the pitch. “Because Leo’s the best header of the ball in our team,” he said. “In fact, he’s better than all of us at everything.”
Two years later in the semi-finals, he showed how his dribbling was also on another level. Receiving a shunted one-two pass from Sergio Busquets (who jokingly claimed the assist), Barça’s No10 slalomed through a string of Real Madrid players before finishing off with his ‘weaker’ right foot. “If you can dribble past half the Madrid team in a match like this, it’s automatically a great goal,” the late Tito Vilanova once told me. The dismay and astonishment on Iker Casillas’ face spoke volumes as well.
Having helped Barcelona reach the 2011 decider, Messi then left his mark on it with a vicious, whipped shot beyond Van der Sar that triggered manic celebrations and put his side ahead – in a match that many remember as a comfortable win. When making the film Take the Ball Pass the Ball, we asked the great man why he had celebrated so wildly, and he explained it was “relief”. While the world believed Barcelona were cruising, Messi was nervous. So he took charge.
All great goals, but perhaps the true Messi pièce de résistance came in the 2014/15 semi-finals, the ball finishing in the net and Bayern defender Jérôme Boateng finishing on his backside. It’s certainly an iconic moment, but the context matters too. Barça were up against their old maestro Pep Guardiola as they chased a second treble in six years, and the Camp Nou first leg was a classic – high-risk, end-to-end stuff, with the scoreline 0-0 until Messi fired in on 77 minutes. His second was even better, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner making Boateng believe he would cut in on his stronger left foot only to go right instead, sending the unbalanced centre-back tumbling before lofting a beautiful finish over Manuel Neuer with that same right boot.
Messi went on to win his fourth and final Champions League title that season, but he was not done lifting fans from their seats. Eighty-two minutes into their 2018/19 semi-final opener against Liverpool and it felt to all the world – except the Reds’ most ardent fans – that the little magician had sent Barça through to another showpiece. His free-kick to make it 3-0 defied human physics. A man of his proportions shouldn’t, in theory, have been able to strike a football that far, that hard and that accurately, but that’s precisely what he did, locating the top-right corner of Alisson Becker’s net from 30 metres. The raucous joy of his team-mates signified that they, like us, could not believe their eyes.
So, there you have it. Your own personal selection may well differ, but surely we can all agree on a final message… Thanks for the memories, Leo.
