Pep Guardiola doesn’t want his Manchester City side to be exposed by Lionel Messi once again on Tuesday night, warning his ranks of the pint-sized Argentine’s “X-ray” abilities.
Barcelona ran out a 4-0 winner against City two weeks ago, with Messi bagging a hat trick, and Guardiola is mindful of his former player’s habit of loitering with predatory intent ahead of the sides’ latest Champions League date.
“Messi spends the match making a mental X-ray of every space, every moment,” Guardiola is quoted as saying by the Daily Mail’s Joe Bernstein.
“It looks like he’s walking. And it seems like he’s alone, detached. Or when he sees the defenders are watching him, he’ll wander off into a space of his own.”
City’s meetings with Barcelona have yielded four red cards in five outings for the English club – effectively easing Messi’s wanderings into space – and five goals for the Ballon d’Or holder. In the midweek tilt, Guardiola will be ensuring his squad knows not to leave Messi alone.
“It looks like he’s just ambling around and maybe he’s the guy who runs least in the Spanish league but, boy, when that ball reaches him he knows the …read more