What is it like to play with Lionel Messi? 'A privilege.' Against him? 'There was just nothing more we could have done.' The Athletic has spoken to a dozen players who have shared a pitch with Messi during his career to find out exactly what it’s like.
“I’ve played against lots of great players, but Messi has something unique,” Zurutuza says. “Not to say he was better — Cristiano was much more physical, more spectacular physically. Messi was much more pure talent. He could accelerate so quickly, but it was his intelligence. He could see things before anyone else.
“Leo really liked a zone of the pitch where he could pick up a diagonal pass — in the triangle between the left-back, the left centre-back and the holding midfielder,” Zurutuza says. “He has this capacity to not focus too much on where the ball is, or what is going on with the play, but look for the best positions to do damage.
“Elusiveness is actually quite a rare trait, that even the best defenders in the world can’t touch you,” Demerit says. “And that’s what I remember about him. We all try to get to him, to close the space, to use the guys around us, to help each other. But at the end of the day, he still seems to find that space, to be that one step ahead.
Mariappa’s other meeting with Messi was a friendly in the U.S. ahead to last year’s World Cup, with the then 35-year-old entering the action as a second-half substitute with Argentina 1-0 ahead, and scoring twice in four minutes late on to ensure a comfortable victory.
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