Lionel Messi put on a show in Barcelona's 5-1 UEFA Champions League victory over Panathinaikos on Tuesday, scoring two goals and setting up two others to kick off Barca's quest for European glory.
After scoring a relatively easy goal (by his standards), Messi completed a brilliant passing sequence with Xavi and Pedro to weave through the heart of the Panathinaikos defense for a true golazo.
He then almost scored from an impossible angle, hitting the inside of the far post from the end line. His shot rebounded right to Pedro, who tapped in the sitter to give Barcelona a 4-1 lead. Messi capped off his night in second-half stoppage time by chipping to Dani Alves, who finished off the rout. A missed penalty kick notwithstanding, it was another marvelous night for the Argentine superstar.
Check out the highlights (change the setting to 360p in the bottom right corner of the video box for better quality):
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cTkF8ws0Qk]
Oooohhhh, ahhhhhhhh, how did he do against Hercules?
That’s why Iheart soccer.
Beautiful, beautiful soccer. Shame I had to listen to some idiot say goal for 20 seconds over and over 😉
What a beautiful set of passing. Threaded the needle all the way through to the goal. Awesome vision by Messi and his teammates.
Every one of those six goals were excellent
does anyone have a link to a better quality video?
Messi is must see tv. Xavi’s pass on his first was perfection. Not to be overlooked, the Panathinaikos goal was pretty sweet, too.