Another fantastic display by Messi. In truth, I hadn't seen him play as much recently but that honestly was just incredible. 9 key passes???
It's one thing to see the pass in the final third on TV or in the stadium, but it's another for the player to get his head up to see it and to play a perfectly weighted pass.
That pass to Suarez in the build-up to the penalty was perfect. The one-touch pass to Semedo was also perfect. It's so easy to time it wrong or to misplace the pass, but Messi time and time again gets it right.
The crazy thing is, that's not even one of his most memorable games, such is his excellence over the years. Someone I saw somewhere said that was like a 8.5 out of 10 for Messi. The response to that was "Yes, maybe by Messi standards. However, if you judged every player on the pitch by that standard, no one would've gotten higher than a 2.0."
Sums it up.