Manchester United icon Paul Scholes scored one of the best goals of his illustrious career on April 29, 2008, against Barcelona in the Champions League.However, this was also the game where the legendary English midfielder saw first-hand what an unbelievable talent Lionel Messi was.Scholes ultimately had the last laugh by scoring *that* spectacular 25-yard screamer at Old Trafford, which sent United through to their first Champions League final since 1999, but Messi was the game’s standout performer.Aged just 20 at the time, Messi was at the heart of all Barça’s most dangerous moments.In front of a packed Old Trafford crowd, the Argentine further cemented his status as the best young footballer on the planet with a superb individual performance against one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s most revered sides.
The visitors probably should have been awarded a penalty inside the opening minute when Messi went down under a challenge from Scholes inside the United box.German referee Herbert Fandel waved play on, much to Scholes’s relief.“It was a moment I will never forget,” Scholes wrote in The Independent in 2015. “He went past me, I stuck out my leg and Lionel Messi went over. This was at Old Trafford in 2008 in the second leg of our Champions League semi-final against Barcelona and, with the score 1-0 to us, I had fouled him in our area.
“When I think about our win over Barcelona in that game, on our way to the second Champions League title of the Sir Alex Ferguson era, I always remember that tackle. Yes, I scored the only goal of the tie, and it was one of my better ones. But I will never forget that couple of seconds when the best footballer in the world deceived me into fouling him and I waited for the world to fall in.“It should have been a penalty to Barcelona, and an away goal would have won them the tie. But for some reason the referee didn’t give it, the game moved on and even Messi did not make much of a fuss. The relief was overwhelming for a few moments – and then I was back into the game.”Scholes went on to score his famous winner in the 14th minute, lashing the ball past Victor Valdes from outside the box to send the home supporters wild. It will always be remembered as one of United’s best ever European goals and rightly so.
Messi, though, continued to do everything in his power to drag Barcelona back into the tie.Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Deco, Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto’o and Yaya Toure were all on the pitch that night, but Messi was Barça’s biggest threat by a distance.There was one moment, in particular, where Scholes discovered that Messi was on a totally different planet.The midfielder found himself defending a one-v-one against Barcelona’s No. 19, and there was only ever going to be one outcome.
The South American shifted to go left before swerving his hips to the right, fooling Scholes with two lightning-quick touches before bursting into the United box.Watch Messi’s moment of magic here…
Unbelievable.
“I am not ashamed to admit that in the games against Barcelona I spent a lot of the time just hoping he would take up positions as far away from me as possible,” Scholes, who faced Messi four times, admitted.
“Elusive is the word that immediately springs to mind when I think about Messi’s style of play. You think you have an eye on him and then – blink – he has gone, only to reappear somewhere else in space, with the ball. When you try to face up to him and make a tackle you know what it is he is going to do with the ball. The problem is staying with him.”
Messi completed a remarkable 16 dribbles that night, which is more than any other player in a single Champions League fixture since the start of the 2005/06 season.
And you can watch his individual highlights from that semi-final second leg in full here…
Scholes, who missed the 1999 Champions League final through suspension, went on to lift the European Cup weeks later after helping United defeat Chelsea in Moscow.
Messi, meanwhile, would eventually exact revenge on the Red Devils by scoring goals in both the 2009 and 2011 Champions League finals.
(Credit: The Football Terrace)