@£foolish

I think Messi's lack of performance in his national duties is down to Maradonna. Maradonna believes he is a god and could be very jealous of the young man who threatened to take his place in history. Messi at club level and Messi on National duty are two different players. How do you explain this? Does he loose his skills when he is not playing for Barcelona? I do not think so.

smano, I agree Messi is very good, actually among the best!!!

lakini the arses want to hide their deficiencies in hero worshipping him!!!

You say 2007/2008 Barca could not score at Nou camp, do yu forget the catalans actually lost at Nou camp to some unknown team in the current campaign???

I agree on that McReggea, but group stages are not definitive...Barca still came out tops in the group stages.

What I know is that Barca are very beatable - Guus Hiddink (not Chelsea) proved that (well almost) last season! You have to defend in numbers and disrupt their play to the extent that they become frustrated since they have possession but can't penetrate the back line of around 6 guys.

Then you hit them on the counter and take the1,2 or at most 3 chances you'll get. Drogba didn't do that at the Nou and at the Bridge to kill the game and that's why he was particularly angry at the officiating after the last gasp Iniesta equalizer!

Of course everyone said that Chelsea were playing bad football just to win but at this stage with such stakes, the end surely justifies the means!

The other thing I know is that Man Utd would probably be beaten again if we were to meet Barca since we can't adopt the Chelsea game in last season's CL that stifled Barca,we'd perhaps give a better account of ourselves than we did in the final but I think Barca are just too good at this point to be beaten in a "normal" game...

Hizo ndizo peni zangu mbili.

They probably need to meet an Italian Team...!!! ama?

@foolish

they have a date with the special one. messi will be required to do more than he did yesterday!!

@Brewer I'll agree and disagree...

Yes, the standards being set are phenomenal, he's likely to be disappointed by Maradona's tactics,personally I don't see Argentina winnning it, they're not a team as opposed to maybe Spain or Brazil.

But I doubt he'll go down the Ronaldinho road, simply because of his work ethic,lack of side shows and youth - the guy has another 1 or 2 world cups to go after 2010 barring burnout.Time will tell.

That boy is VERY good. My prediction however... Inter to whip barca into shape. The etoo they sold will come back to haunt them!

The moment he gets the ball there's an air of excitement and expectation that fills the air...it is great to have the greatest player in world during our lifetime!

I believe the Man-urine fans got a dose they wanted after talking ill of Arsenal last year.

In all honesty, Messi was good. But the difference between the Barca Messi and the Argentina Messi is quite simple. Xavi and Iniesta. Without these two, Messi would have to work extra hard. That is what he lacks with Argentina; play makers. Statistics show that Xavi and Iniesta completed quite a number of passes to Messi for him to do his thing. But yet again, even against my beloved team, it was fun to watch the beautiful game, and especially the unstoppable Villa goal. It was the goal of the match. Superb.