Rio Ferdinand was full of praise for Lionel Messi on Wednesday night after he scored twice for Barcelona in a 4-2 win over Tottenham Hotspurs.
The Argentina international put in a superb performance at Wembley Stadium and could have had even more goals had he not hit the woodwork twice.
Ferdinand said, “You have to marvel at this guy here. I feel blessed that I was in this stadium live to be able to watch him. I’ll tell my kids about it tomorrow on the school run. This guy—what he does on a football pitch is just ridiculous. It’s like he’s got a remote control in his hand and he assesses the situation and says ‘yeah, right’ just plotting the location and ‘I’ll put the ball exactly where I want to put it on a sixpence.”
The former Man United defender continued, “His weight of pass, his decision-making is unrivalled, and when he gets in to finish he is cool as you like. I was actually thinking he’s trying to play one-twos with the post he’s that good.”
Messi’s first goal saw him play a sumptuous pass to Jordi Alba out wide before racing on to the return ball to tuck home. For his second, he ghosted into space and supplied another finish from close range.
His passing was superb throughout, and he carved open the Spurs defence time and again. When he wasn’t doing that, he was running at their back line and causing all manner of problems with his dribbling.
Ferdinand wasn’t the only one to praise the diminutive genius, with former England strikers Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer also sharing their views:
Does anyone really genuinely think there has ever been a better footballer than Lionel Messi? I mean seriously?
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) October 3, 2018
Messi the best ever. Goals. Skill. Work rate. Attitude. An artist. #TOTBAR
— Alan Shearer (@alanshearer) October 3, 2018
Messi’s team-mate Philippe Coutinho, who opened the scoring in what was a thrilling contest, echoed their thoughts.
He said, “Messi is the best. I always say he’s the greatest of all time, and what he does is outrageous.”
The forward means business in the UEFA Champions League this year and has scored five goals in just two matches.
Barca have failed to reach the semi-finals of the competition since winning it in 2015 and have been forced to witness rivals Real Madrid lift the trophy three years running. The Club Captain Messi appears determined to rectify that.
He’ll need to continue producing in the knockout phase if Barca are to do it, but the Blaugrana are already shaping up to be serious contenders this season.