Remembering Lionel Messi’s Champions Legaue quadruple against Arsenal

In 2010, Lionel Messi orchestrated one of his finest performances for Barcelona with a four goal masterpiece against Arsenal in the Champions League. 

The Camp Nou has been home to some of the most enthralling fixtures in world soccer over the past decade, including one on a memorable April night in 2010.

Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona hosted Arsenal in the return leg of the 2009-10 Champions League Quarterfinals.

Barca had the aggregate advantage thanks to away goals after a 2-2 first leg, but would need a hero to hold off Arsenal because of the absences to four key starters, including captain Carles Puyol. Arsenal faced depth issues as well, with both Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie missing the contest due to injury.

But the main focus for Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger revolved around one player: Lionel Messi.

At 22, Messi had already bloomed into an unstoppable force. He had scored 35 goals on the season coming into the game and was the early favorite for the 2010 Ballon d’Or. The Argentine had grown into being the nucleus of Barcelona’s mesmerizing possessional play.

Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen and his team recognized the monumental task of having to contain Messi, but they did not fear the challenge.

“Messi is a very good player, one of the best players in the world,” Vermaelen said before the tie. “Of course you enjoy watching him play, because he is a real footballer. However, there will be no time to be intimidated tomorrow.”

Over the season, managers had tried everything to contain Messi but all to no avail. From zonal marking to deep low blocks, Messi negated defensive tactical setups with relative ease and just continued to rack up goals.

Some even tried to man-mark him, but such an aggressive option was not on the table for Wenger because of the opportunities it would create for other Barcelona talents.

“I have never tried to man-mark a player out of a game during my time at Arsenal,” Wenger said before the first leg. “It can work, but in exceptional teams you have two or three players you should man-mark and then you have to go to a system where you could create your own problems just by following somebody everywhere.”

In the first leg, Messi was not man-marked while he hovered over the right flanks. He was held to a rare scoreless showing on the night with just three total touches in the box. Had Wenger decided to man-mark him, Xavi Hernandez would have exploited multitudes of space on the right side of the pitch and cause spacial problems for Arsenal.

Wenger had earned a minor victory over Messi in the first leg, but the tide would turn at the Camp Nou.

In the return leg, Guardiola slotted Messi into the false nine role. With his improving positional awareness, Messi was given the freedom to leave the center-forward space at will.

As shown here, Messi had the green light to collect the ball outside of his center-forward space, with the goal of creating an imbalance in Arsenal’s defensive spacing.

Meanwhile, Wenger answered with his side operating in a 4-2-3-1 that switched to an out-of-possession 4-1-4-1 setup.

Over the opening minutes of the second leg, it was clear as day that Arsenal were going to be in for another long and dreadful 90 minutes. Barcelona went all out with their pressing as they not only played a high line of controntation but looked to apply immediate pressure whenever Arsenal recovered the ball. And when in possession, Barcelona moved the ball precision and coordination like a well-oiled machine.

However, Barca’s early dominance all went to waste after a stunning Nicklas Bendtner goal in the 18th minute. A Milito blunder and loss of possession in the middle third allowed Arsenal to pounce for a crowd-silencing counter-attack goal.

The goal put Arsenal up 3-2 on aggregate. Arsenal were given the confidence that maybe they could indeed pull off the upset and dethrone the European champions. But minutes later, all hope would vanish in what turned out to be the start of a monumental showing.

After Barcelona recovered possession in their own defensive third following a successful high press, the Blaugrana charged upfield. Messi received a pass in the middle third and proceeded to lay it off to Pedro on the right wing. After finding space, Messi received the return pass and attempted a through ball to Xavi in the penalty box. But the errant pass was deflected by Sami Nasri and then ricocheted off Mikael Silvestre.

Messi received the pass back as if he was playing tiki-taka with Arsenal. He proceeded to launch a thunderous strike that could have registered on a radar gun. The Camp Nou erupted as the ball shook the back of the net. Messi rushed off to pump up the fans, celebrated with teammates, thanked God and headed over to the restart position with a determined look.

Those in attendance were left in awe of the goal as it completely turned the momentum of the contest.

“The five minutes [after scoring] are crucial and we just could not hang on,” Arsenal’s Theo Walcott said after the game. “Lionel Messi is probably the only player on the planet who could have scored goals like that.”

Messi’s first half was far from over.

In the 37th minute, Messi sprinted into the penalty box onto a receiving a loose-ball layoff from Pedro. Messi drifted over to his right with all four Arsenal defenders to his left and rattled in a shot for the score. The Camp Nou roared again.

Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia had no chance of stopping it. He alluded to after the game on how difficult it was to predict what Messi will do.

"“You try to anticipate what he is going to do. But you can’t because he has so many skills, he can do whatever he wants.”"

The Argentine star was not done yet.

In the 42nd minute, with Arsenal’s backline playing high, Vermaelen leaped to clear an aerial ball away but completely misjudged it. Messi veered into the newly opened space and hustled upfield with the ball. With Almunia coming off of his line, Messi flicked in a perfect chip to complete his first-half hat-trick.

Messi is one of those players you can not afford to make that kind of defensive miscue against.

“He’s like a PlayStation,” Wenger said after the game. “I think he can take advantage of every mistake you make. Barcelona are a very good side but of course they have Messi who can make the difference at any moment in the game.”

In the first half, the Argentine had not only recorded his first career European hat-trick but also passed Rivaldo for the most Champions League goals for Barcelona.

With the tie in the books, Barcelona spent much of the second half pinging the ball across the pitch to the tune of “ole” from the Barca faithful in attendance.

But in the 87th minute, Messi provided the curtain-call goal.

With Arsenal in another disorganized high line, Messi slipped in behind and received an incoming through ball from Xavi. He dribbled past Emmanuel Eboue and proceeded to halt his dribble amidst pressure from Vermaelen and Walcott. Once he created enough space away from the two, he took a low shot that was blocked by Almunia, to the sheer astonishment of the crowd. After corralling his own rebound, Messi settled the ball, paused and sent in the shot right between the goalkeeper’s legs for the quadruple.

No tactical setup could have prevented Messi from scoring his fourth of the night.

“‘For example the fourth goal he scored, I don’t know many players in the world who can score that,” Wenger said. “He’s not always in the game, but when he gets on the ball he’s unstoppable.”

Messi finished with a four-goal showing that left teammates like Xavi in amazement.

"“To hit four goals in a match like this is outrageous – marvelous. Leo is on another level completely from every other player in the world, in a different class.”"

Pep was left in awe as well.

"“We don’t demand Leo makes performances like this. We don’t demand him to score four goals to get us through. We just ask him to enjoy it when he has the ball. The rest sometimes happens, sometimes it doesn’t.”"

Messi completely dominated in a season-defining performance that wound up being a significant factor in why he earned Ballon d’Or honors for 2010.

It also kicked off his reign of terror over the Premier League as he silenced any doubts of whether he can provide a world class showing against England’s best. After scoring a mere one goal in 10 previous appearances, Messi wound up accounting for 21 goals in 21 appearances against Premier League teams in Champions League play after this fixture. His nine goals against Arsenal are his most against any non-Spanish side.

From the spaces exploited to sheer class in all four goals, it was the performance of a lifetime for Messi.