Felipe Melo, who’s still going strong for Palmeiras at the age of 36, has revealed what it took to stop Lionel Messi back in his days of anchoring Brazil’s midfield.
Between 2009 and 2010 — when Melo was at the height of his power with Juventus — the hard-tackling “Pitbull” represented the Seleção 22 times and came up against Messi’s Argentina during 2010 World Cup qualifying.
Defending Lionel Messi free kicks is one of the most terrifying experiences for a soccer team. If he strikes it the way he wants, which happens more often than not, there’s likely nothing an opponent can do to prevent a goal on a free kick from within 20-25 yards. Messi has scored 19 free kicks since the start of the 2017-18 season.
You can’t blame Real Sociedad for its tactics to defend against a Messi free kick on Saturday at the Camp Nou.
Do you ever wish that you could go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry except instead of magic and getting attacked by Lord Voldemort every year it's a school for elite athletes? I know I don’t because I’d probably be an outcast, fail every single class and tear my hamstring, but that’s essentially the idea behind Gatorade’s new GOAT Camp advertisement.
There’s a graphic doing the rounds that shows the 10 players with the most combined goals and assists in Europe’s top five leagues since August 2017. Lionel Messi is obviously miles ahead in the top spot, Luis Suárez is sixth and Neymar — despite only appearing in 52 games over that period — comes in 10th.
It was only three seasons ago, but MSN seems a lifetime away. With a collection of arguably the world’s best No. 9, No. 10 and winger, there were endless variants to the ways in which Barcelona could go about killing you.
If you’ve been living under a rock the past two months and have no idea what’s going on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. EST, well, get excited. Napoli will be hosting Barcelona at the famous (or infamously crumbling) San Paolo stadium. And if you don’t understand the significance of this, then you know what? Too bad, we can’t be friends.
Because I am JACKED UP. I’ve been looking at pics and watching videos non stop the past couple of days. Of Messi/Maradona, of Maradona, of Napoli in Champions League. Here are just a few to give you an idea:
Lionel Messi and Barcelona have a massive week ahead on the road. A trip to the Stadio San Paolo to face Napoli on Tuesday in the Champions League is followed by an even bigger showdown with Real Madrid at the Bernabeu on Sunday.