The Champions League used to be a walk on the beach for Lionel Messi. Those duels were good for him, especially when they closed at the Camp Nou, in front of his people … it was like a drizzle on the hottest days of summer.
But the years passed and the trophy that almost looked for him as a magnet to metal, has suddenly been repelled. He doesn’t want it anymore.
Messi suffered severe setbacks in the European tournament before, but the last three years borders on obsession.
In 2010 it was Inter Milan that subdued them with a 3-1 victory in the first leg in Italy and a 1-0 victory for the Catalans in Spain. In 2012 the pain in the semifinals would be courtesy of Chelsea, who won 1-0 in the first leg and in the rematch, on Catalan soil, would draw 2-2. That day he even missed a penalty.
In 2013 would come a payment of the resounding falls of the Argentine, precisely at the hands of Bayern Munich in the semifinals. The German club gave him 4-0 in the first leg and 3-0 in the second leg. In his defense, he did not play at the Camp Nou. But it hurt just the same.
And in any case it would not be the initial quota of what would come from 2018, first from the hand of Ernesto Valverde and now from Quique Setién.
The Catalans arrived in Rome in 2018 with the tranquility of a 4-1 victory in the first leg of the quarterfinals. The idea was to complete the rematch process with shocks. The local won 3-0 and qualified thanks to the visiting goal. Messi would acknowledge after that blow he had a hard time recovering.
It should be the following year, 2019, that of the vindication. At the Camp Nou, against Liverpool, the captain was the great figure, with a double in the 3-0 victory. But in the first leg, the ghost of Rome reappeared and the 4-0 classified at Anfield to the English, ultimately Champions of the Champions League. There was no consolation.
2020 would arrive and, to be fair, there was fear of a new debacle rather than the pandemic. But neither Messi nor the most optimistic of the German fans could have predicted what would happen in Lisbon, in a single quarter-final match, which ended 8-2 in favor of Bayern Munich. Messi’s worst sporting embarrassment, the worst win of his entire career, including the national team, a pain that is difficult to explain, even more so to overcome.
There are those who fear that this is the goodbye of the best in the world to FC Barcelona, because after the three defeats in the Champions League he has to feel that he no longer has more to contribute. Time, which heals everything, will dictate sentence.
–
