Fansided

5 underrated performances from Lionel Messi’s Barcelona career

By Steve Zavala

BARCELONA, SPAIN - MARCH 07: Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona celebrates his team's first goal during the Liga match between FC Barcelona and Real Sociedad at Camp Nou on March 07, 2020 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Pedro Salado/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
BARCELONA, SPAIN - MARCH 07: Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona celebrates his team's first goal during the Liga match between FC Barcelona and Real Sociedad at Camp Nou on March 07, 2020 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Pedro Salado/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 5
Next
VALENCIA, SPAIN – JANUARY 22: Lionel Messi of Barcelona runs with the ball during the Copa del Rey Quarter Final First Leg match between Levante UD and FC Barcelona at Ciutat de Valencia on January 22, 2014 in Valencia, Spain. (Photo by Manuel Queimadelos Alonso/Getty Images)
VALENCIA, SPAIN – JANUARY 22: Lionel Messi of Barcelona runs with the ball during the Copa del Rey Quarter Final First Leg match between Levante UD and FC Barcelona at Ciutat de Valencia on January 22, 2014 in Valencia, Spain. (Photo by Manuel Queimadelos Alonso/Getty Images) /

Barcelona 4-1 Levante – 2013-14 Copa Del Rey Quarterfinal, first leg

Messi has seemingly become the king of scoring hat-tricks. He owns the all-time Barcelona and La Liga records for hat-tricks and is tied with Cristiano Ronaldo (8) for the most in Champions League history.

But the Argentinian international has also racked up his fair share of assist hat-tricks, such as with his first coming against Levante in a 2013-14 Copa Del Rey fixture.

In his 400th career game for Barcelona, Messi led the team to a 4-1 Copa Del Rey first leg away win over Levante. The home side held Messi to a scoreless night despite his eight shots taken, but the Argentine’s playmaking abilities provided plenty for the Blaugrana. He recorded six goal-scoring chances created with three of them resulting in goals, all from winger Cristian Tello.

Messi’s success in the game stemmed on not only his vision on the ball, but how he continued to master the false nine role. The team often interchanged as Messi dropped deep to collect the ball, wingers Tello and Pedro pushed into the vacant centre-forward space to drag along Levante defenders.

What makes this feat even more impressive for Messi is the difficulty of each of his three assists. None of them were simple passes in the penalty box or effortless layoffs where the scorer handled most of the dirty work, like Sergio Busquets’ famous assist to Messi in the Champions League semifinals against Real Madrid.

On the first and third assists, Messi positioned himself in the middle third with the latter being made possible by a floating chip pass over the Levante backline. The second assist occurred closer to the penalty box but the Argentine still managed to fool Levante with a through ball in between the two center-backs. In short, the Levante backline anticipated an array of through passes coming their way, yet failed to respond; it was like watching a hitter strikeout on a pitch he knew was coming but had no answer for.

Since the performance against Levante, Messi has gone on to record three more hat-trick of assists showings, including in a recent 2019-20 away league fixture against Real Betis.

Home/Soccer