'Messi eats at his own table', says Alba after Wembley masterclass

  • by Emily Walters
  • in Sport
  • — Oct 4, 2018
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At Wembley, as rightly predicted, there was plenty of goals to savour and Messi was in the thick of a lot of them. "He plays a different game to anyone I've ever seen and he's the greatest of all time in my book".

Ivan Rakitic, the scorer of Barca's second goal, said Messi was one of a kind.

Winks, who was starting in his first Champions League game of the season, played the full 90 minutes as he continues his rehabilitation from the ankle injury which kept him out of last season's run-in, and afterwards spoke of his pride at having shared a pitch with the five-time Balon d'Or victor.

Former Barca striker Gary Lineker described Messi as the best player in history on social media and Coutinho was quick to agree with that assessment after scoring his first Champions League goal for the club. He plays at another level, he scores goals, he provides assists, he runs as much as the most.

Messi now has five goals in just two European games this season, having scored a hat trick against PSV Eindhoven last month.

"Our players were heroes because they were chasing the game against Messi, Suárez, Coutinho".

"Barcelona were the better team on the night but we'll take plenty of positives out of it".

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Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho pressed Tottenham's shaky back line early and they never stopped.

But question marks do remain about their ability to seriously challenge for the Champions League title this season, despite making it two wins from two to open up group play.

Messi and Co. have been written off by many already, and after going three years without winning the Champions League, they will have to clean up their defensive deficiencies to have a real chance of winning it all in Madrid in May.

Rakitic stole the spotlight midway through the first half when the Croatia midfielder struck with a thunderous half-volley.

Mauricio Pochettino's side have lost both of their group matches after a 2-1 defeat at Inter Milan in their opener. Victor Waynama and Harry Winks will look to control midfield, while Lucas Moura, Erik Lamela and Heung-Min Son support Harry Kane.

And that failure to invest bit hard against Barca, with key men such as Dele Alli, Jan Vertonghen, Christian Eriksen and Moussa Dembele all missing and Pochettino unable to call on anything like their quality as replacements.

Had Spurs had a fully fit squad to choose from, they could have nicked a point against Barcelona, or maybe even more.

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