Barcelona superstar striker Lionel Messi continues to show that he’s simply so much better than the rest of the soccer world — every time he steps foot on the pitch.
Saturday’s match against Napoli was an extremely important one, given that it was on the Champions League stage, and carried huge weight for the club going forward. They settled for a 1-1 draw in the first leg of the matchup, putting a lot of pressure on Messi and his teammates to deliver on Saturday.
And that’s exactly what he did.
Barcelona was clinging to a 1-0 lead and looking for some insurance roughly one-quarter of the way through the match, and Messi did exactly that. He got tripped up just outside the box, which likely would’ve earned him a free-kick opportunity had he went down.
That’s what most players would’ve done, being able to set themself and get the opportunity to have a crack at goal from a restart. Not Messi, though, as he bounced right up off the ground and blasted the ball into the corner of the net from his feet.
The balance and body control on that precise finish were just unbelievable.
