Lionel Messi has had a difficult relationship with the Champions League in recent seasons.

Barcelona have become the butt of a lot of jokes about European football after bottling comfortable first-leg leads against AS Roma and Liverpool during their most recent campaigns.

The Blaugrana were humiliated in the Italian capital in 2017/18 despite winning 4-1 at home, prompting Messi to promise fans that the Champions League title was their new priority.

But that clip came back to haunt the Barca captain as they threw away a 3-0 aggregate lead against Liverpool when it looked almost impossible for them to concede a place in the final.

Consequently, it's now been half a decade since Messi got his hands on 'Big Ears', which has given plenty of ammunition for those backing Cristiano Ronaldo in the GOAT argument.

Barcelona's Champions League woes

Despite the fact Ronaldo is now trailing 6-5 in terms of Ballon d'Or trophies, he still holds an advantage in the Champions League having won four titles in five seasons at Real Madrid.

It's a wider scenario that has led many people to opine that Messi is something of a 'bottler' when the most crucial of games roll around on the continent.

It's a theory that's easy to prescribe to on the surface when you consider Messi neither scored nor assisted during the collapses against both Roma and Liverpool.

p1ea36m1onopn38rv3ucf515q69.jpg

Messi 'disappearing' in big games

But to focus solely on the headline statistics is to merely scratch the surface and anybody who's watched Messi in big Champions League games recently will know differently.

It's been well publicised that Messi has been let down by his Argentina teammates across his career and it's increasingly becoming the case at Camp Nou also, leading to 'Messi FC' accusations.

And it's a school of thought that's supported by a fantastic video from Twitter user @SHOOTINHOO that essentially renders claims that Messi is a bottler in Europe as complete nonsense.

With 5,800 'likes' and 1,400 retweets at the time of writing, it would be fair to say plenty of fans have found it enlightening, so check out the full footage down below:

Yeh... so what's that about Messi disappointing on the big stage?

If anything, the video makes you wish that Messi would just try and take on opposition teams all by himself sometimes, especially when so many of his teammates have bungled massive chances.

Perhaps the prime example is when Messi put it on a plate for Ousmane Dembele to make it 4-0 against Liverpool in last year's semi-final, which is a scoreline truly beyond any comeback. 

p1ea36pcqu20c1atv1ktg9c1l5ab.jpg

But no, Messi didn't benefit from the final product that he himself would surely have delivered and it's a trend present in similarly massive ties with Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain.

So, frankly, if you're to look at where and why Barca have come up short during the biggest Champions League games, it's probably worth scanning anywhere but Messi.