Barcelona makes a perfectly timed response to comments made by Thibaut Courtois on Lionel Messi, where he said he analyzes him as a normal player.
Lionel Messi is arguably the greatest player to appear in an El Clasico, and his staggering figures do talk about his effect on the rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid.
The Argentine International has scored 26 goals against Real Madrid, 4th highest among all the teams he has scored against, yet Thibaut Courtois is not ready to consider special preparation against Messi ahead of the tie.
“Messi? For me he’s like any other player,” Courtois said. “We study him like we would study a player from Celta Vigo or Levante. There is no difference.”
Even if Courtois had a great record against Messi, this statement would not have been a safe thing to say. But, the Belgian International had some embarrassing moments in his career against the Barcelona captain.
Thus, to make a solid response to Courtois, Barcelona released a video compilation showing every goal Messi has scored against Courtois. Messi has put 9 goals past the ‘keeper while nutmegging him on three occasions.
Apart from this, players who have often tried to talk intimidate Messi with such talks have often been punished by him later. The prime example is Manuel Neuer, who did the same in 2015 and ended up conceding a brace.
Watch the video
https://twitter.com/FCBarcelona/status/1233517373732290563?s=20
In the last game-week, only Messi scored a hattrick against Eibar but had an underwhelming game against Napoli, but one can never predict Messi when it comes to Real Madrid.
Now, it remains to be seen how Real Madrid will perform against Barcelona at home, the record of the Madrid based club has been poor against the Catalan lately.
But with the title race getting intense from here, Barcelona requires to maintain its slim lead on the table by defeating Real Madrid on this Sunday.
