Like a feeling of deja vu. Saturday against Nice, Lionel Messi gave the air of Camp Nou at the Parc des Princes. On a free kick full axis 20 meters from the Nice goal, the Pulga made its velvet foot speak. With a caress wrapped with an unstoppable effect, the Parisian number 30 left the Riviera goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel speechless and found the skylight to open the scoring. Kicks like that, Messi has offered FC Barcelona for almost 15 years. This magnificent goal sounds like a confirmation of his current form: yes, the Argentinian is back.
Top goals of Matchday 9 Lionel Messi️
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Landed in the capital as the new jewel of Paris Saint-Germain in 2021, the seven-time Ballon d’Or will have had a frustrating first exercise in many respects. He first had to digest the emotional weight of his departure from FC Barcelona, his lifelong club. As if it were harder for a football alien to be, as he so often has been, to suddenly be a little more human. A year later, Messi seems more fulfilled, happier on the pitch. And that changes everything.
“Leo is well in his head“, estimated his coach Christophe Galtier, Saturday, after his team’s 2-1 victory against the Gym. “He animates the game and is very generous. He used to score a lot of goals but last season he had extenuating circumstances. There, he regains a taste for scoring. He has prepared well, the relationship he has with his partners in the training sessions suggests that he is happy and when he is happy he performs and regains the standards he had throughout of her career.“
This joy of playing, Galtier is no stranger to it. The technician has placed the Argentinian in the best conditions to shine on the pitch. Often confined to the right side last season, Lionel Messi is now at the heart of the Parisian offensive animation. From the magic trio with Neymar and Mbappé, it is from him that the creative spark springs to launch the attack on PSG. A role of facilitator perfectly suited to his qualities and which offers him more freedom of movement, and therefore creativity.
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It was from one of his ball-to-foot rides that Niçois Dante’s fault came, then the superb free kick on Saturday. The kind of breakthrough that became possible again at the end of a complete and smooth pre-season. “Can he become the best player in the world again? Yes, if he’s in incredible shaperetorted Christophe Galtier on Saturday. And he is well prepared.“
The numbers are unequivocal on his participation in the game as a maestro. He manages 1.7 more passes in the opposing area per game, and two “progressive passes”, these transmissions which allow to gain at least ten meters, compared to last season. It’s simple, no player in Europe does better in the five biggest European leagues, by far.
More present around the goal, Lionel Messi is also all the more dangerous. He is the player who has attempted the most strikes in the five major championships this season, and the one who frames the most. Scorer in his last five games with PSG and Argentina, decisive twice in the same game in half of his official meetings since the start of the season, Messi finds this statistical appetite as in his finest hours in Barcelona. He who had coughed in his debut with two goals and three assists after his first eleven games last season, in the league and in C1, is already six achievements and eight offerings at the same stage in 2022.
PSG asked for nothing less. A third success in three games on the ground of Benfica, Wednesday, would ensure a little more the Parisian task in this first phase of the Champions League, the big objective of the club.