Luis Miguel Pascual
Paris, 13 Feb. Few teams in the world can boast of having a positive record against Lionel Messi. The Argentine star has lost to Bayern Munich five of the eight times he has faced them and only twice has he won.
The former Barcelona player aims to start this Tuesday in the knockout stages of the Champions League against the Germans, despite hamstring problems which forced him to miss PSG’s last duel against Monaco this Saturday.
The images of this terrible August 14, 2020, when Barcelona fell humiliated in Lisbon 2-8 against the Bavarian team, in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, will scroll through the mind of the recent world champion.
With Quique Setién on the bench, this duel marked Barca’s departure from the elite of European football, the beginning of the end of a golden era which had been linked to the name of Messi.
“Today does not give us enough to win the Champions League,” said the Argentine then, who with that pithy phrase, which confirmed what the results also said, diminished one of the greatest from Europe.
A year later, the Rosario star left Barca with the serious injury and the team that inflicted it will be measured again.
It was the eighth time Messi was measured against the German side, with whom he suffered significant setbacks.
GOOD STARTS
And it all started auspiciously, since the first time he faced Bayern was in April 2009, in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. In the first leg, Pep Guardiola’s Barça beat Jurgen Klinsmann’s Bayern 4-0, with two goals from Messi and an assist from Nigerian Samuel Eto’o.
In the second leg, the result was 1-1 and Barcelona continued on their way to their third Champions League.
Four years later, the Germans returned the affront in the semi-finals. Jupp Heynckes’ side beat Tito Vilanova’s side 4-0 in Munich and 0-3 at Camp Nou, with Messi not featuring much in either duel.
That same year 2013, the two teams played a friendly match at the Allianz Arena, already with Guardiola on the Bavarian bench, which ended in a 2-0 victory.
Author of two goals and another assist, the Argentinian was the architect of the Catalan victory in the first leg of the 2015 semi-finals (3-0), a result which they maintained in the second leg where they lost 3-2 to qualify. for the final in which they would end up winning their last Champions League to date.
Then came the disaster in Lisbon which marked all Barcelona fans and also Messi, who is now looking to win another European title with Paris Saint-Germain.
Messi played another season at Camp Nou, but they failed to progress to the round of 16, where they fell precisely against Paris Saint-Germain.
This is the last time the Blaugrana squad manage to overcome the group stage of the maximum continental competition.
At the French club, the Argentinian did not experience the great European joys either, but in this edition, he has the chance to take his revenge on his German nemesis and lead to glory a team which has not been lucky against Bayern lately. years either.
Of the last five duels between the two, only one French triumph, already fallen last year in the quarter-finals against the Germans.
The match attracts all the attention of the media. It can serve as a salvation table for Messi’s PSG or deal a new mortal blow to the Qatari project of the France team. ECE
lmpg/et