- Back in April, Barca drew 4-4 away against Villareal.
- The Catalans were losing 4-2 when Leo took the game into his legs and produced 2 goals in 3 minutes.
- Chukwueze later revealed he couldn’t sleep the night after.
When you watch Leo Messi play for your team week in and week out, it becomes increasingly easy to take him for granted and forget what a monster he really is, especially if you have him as your opposition.
As such, Villareal player Samuel Chukwueze remembers facing the Argentine last spring:
“I’m not a good loser. I couldn’t sleep that night after the 4-4 draw with Barca, but sometimes Messi does only what Messi does. I don’t think he was in the same stadium as the rest of us that day”.
The Nigerian is talking of course about the last time we encountered the Yellow Submarine back in April. It was an away Tuesday night game and Ernesto Valverde decided to keep Leo on the bench.
The match didn’t start too bad, as Barca were 2-1 up at half-time thanks to goals from Philippe Coutinho and Malcom. Eventually, Villareal levelled the score and the coach decided to field Messi in the 61st minute, one minute before Iborra made it 3-2 in favour of the home side. Carlos Bacca came off the bench to add another one, and Barca saw themselves losing 4-2 by the 89th minute.
It was exactly the moment when our captain turned ‘genius’ mode on. Leo went on to score from a free-kick in the 90th minuted. Two minutes later, the Argentina international delivered the corner which saw Luis Suarez make it 4-4 after a rebound.
That’s how you save a game in just 3 minutes!
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