Marc-Andre ter Stegen had high praise for Lionel Messi after the Argentine’s winning performance against Borussia Dortmund.
Messi made his 700th appearance for Barcelona against BVB along and went on to score a goal and two other assists to put his team through to the Champions League knockout stages. Luis Suarez and Antoine Griezmann grabbed the other two in the 3-1 win over Lucien Favre’s men.
Ter Stegen said after the match, “We played some good football tonight. We managed to score the first goal, which was what we intended. We hope we will be able to prove in the last group stage match that we deserve to lead the section. 700 matches for Barcelona is not normal and neither is what [Messi] did on the pitch. He is simply the best footballer in the world.”
Messi’s has only scored twice this season in the Champions League but has grabbed 8 in 8 La Liga fixtures along with 5 other assists. He remains the club’s attacking talisman but Barcelona are still torn over their manager. Ernesto Valverde’s position at the club is under threat given the lack consistency in the side this season.
Griezman’s arrival seems to have given them more attacking threat but the Frenchman is yet to get fully integrated into the front three.
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