Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated football for the past year and a half, with much in common, having never scored against Benfica and already won against FC Porto and Sporting.
On Wednesday, Paris Saint-Germain’s 30 – if used, as predictably – will have another chance to break this record, when they visit Lisbon’s Estádio da Luz in the third round of Group H of the Champions League.
The Argentine arrives in style, with 11 goals and nine assists in 14 games in 2022/23, settled with 13 wins and one draw, including goals in the last five games, out of a total of seven, and two free kicks scored in the last. two matches.
In the Champions League, Messi has 126 goals on his card in 158 games, but none against Benfica, which he will be able to meet for the third time, after meeting the Reds with the FC Barcelona shirt ten years ago, in the groups of the edition 2012/13.
After failing to appear in two games of the 2005/06 quarter-finals (a 0-0 draw at Luz and a 2-0 home win for the Catalans) due to injury, the Argentine made his debut on October 2, 2012, at Estádio da Luz. , in Lisbon.
In the reunion with idol and compatriot Pablo Aimar, then icon of Benfica, the seven-time Ballon d’Or did not score, but he was the major imbalance of the match, as he provided the assists for the goals of Chilean Alexis Sánchez ( six minutes) and the international Spanish Cesc Fabregas (55).
Two months and three days later, and with Barca already through, the late Tito Vilanova didn’t start the Argentinean at the Camp Nou, but only launched it in the 58th minute, in a match that ended in a goalless draw, a result that eliminated Benfica.
Messi ultimately gave the Catalans a big scare, as he was injured in the 85th minute after a move with red goalkeeper Artur Moraes.
It was only the shock, however, and four days later Messi scored twice at Betis to score 86 goals in 2012 and break the record for goals in a calendar year, which has been set to the top since 1972. panzer German Gerd Muller.
The Argentine would finish the year with an incredible 91 goals, one of many impossible-to-beat records set in an unparalleled career, making him a candidate, when he decides to retire, the best player in football history.
Among his achievements are 807 goals in his senior career, with FC Barcelona C (five), FC Barcelona B (six), FC Barcelona (672), Paris Saint-Germain (18) and the main teams (90), under – 20 (14) and under-23 (two) from Argentina, but none to Benfica for now.
On the contrary, Messi has already scored, for Barça against the other greats of Portugal, once against Sporting (5-2 in Alvalade, on November 26, 2008, for the Champions League), in four matches, and another against FC Porto, in the only game (2-0 on August 26, 2011, in the European Supercup, in Monaco).
Curiously, Cristiano Ronaldo also has an identical record against the great Portuguese: he is zero against Benfica, scoring against FC Porto and Sporting, the club that launched him into the football spotlight.
The captain of the Portuguese national team was always blank in five games against Benfica, scored against FC Porto in eight games and won three times against Sporting, beating them in all four games.
The match between Benfica and Paris Saint-Germain, of the third round of Group H of the Champions League in football, will take place on Wednesday at 20:00 at Estádio da Luz, in Lisbon.
Source: DN
