{"id":906,"date":"2018-02-19T22:50:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T22:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hitzmakers.com\/2018\/02\/19\/lionel-messis-best-and-worst-opponents\/"},"modified":"2018-02-19T22:50:00","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T22:50:00","slug":"lionel-messis-best-and-worst-opponents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hitzmakers.com\/lionel-messis-best-and-worst-opponents\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi’s best and worst opponents"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Lionel Messi can end a long wait for his first goal against Chelsea in the upcoming UEFA Champions League round of 16 tie. Which teams has he found the hardest \u2013 or easiest \u2013 opponents to break down?<\/span>

\u2022 Messi has scored 100 goals in 10,272 minutes of European football; that’s a goal roughly every 102 minutes and 43 seconds.<\/span>

\u2022 The Argentinian has faced 37 different clubs in Europe (from 16 countries), failing to score against seven: Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, Benfica, Chelsea, Internazionale, Liverpool, Rubin Kazan and Udinese.<\/span>

\u2022 Chelsea have been the toughest European nut to crack \u2013 Messi has yet to score in 655 minutes of football spanning eight games. AC Milan are the only side he has played more minutes against (eight matches, 720 minutes), and he has struck eight times against them.<\/span>

\u2022 Petr Cech was long considered Messi’s arch-nemesis: the Czech goalkeeper did not concede in 495 minutes of UEFA Champions League football against Messi over six games with Chelsea, though the forward hit the woodwork three times \u2013 including once from the penalty spot. However, that myth was debunked when ?ech faced Messi with Arsenal in the 2015\/16 round of 16, the Bar\u00e7a ace netting three times across two legs.<\/span>

\u2022 The keeper who has gone the longest without conceding against Messi in Europe is Inter’s J\u00falio C\u00e9sar \u2013 270 minutes \u2013 though Rubin Kazan’s Sergei Ryzhikov may feel he has the moral right to that title. He has been unbeaten in 237 minutes against Messi; that run took in four matches, as opposed to J\u00falio C\u00e9sar’s three.<\/span>

\u2022 The Blaugrana man has scored more goals against Arsenal than any other team \u2013 nine in 447 minutes comprising six games. On average that’s a goal every 49 minutes and 40 seconds.<\/span>

\u2022 His favourite opponents may be Bayer Leverkusen: Messi has notched seven goals in 270 minutes against them, at a rate of one every 38 minutes and 34 seconds. Five of those strikes famously came in one match, a 7-0 win on 7 March 2012.<\/span>

\u2022 Of the big five European footballing nations, German opponents seem to suit Messi best: he scores on average every 70 minutes and 34 seconds against Bundesliga clubs. Goals are much rarer against sides from England (every 126m42s), Italy (136m10s), France (138m51s) and Spain (187m30s).<\/span>

\u2022 Messi may relish Portuguese rearguards least of all; in 478 minutes against Liga teams, he has scored just twice \u2013 a goal every 239 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n\n