- The elimination against Real Madrid joins those suffered at Barça against Atlético, Juventus, Roma, Liverpool, Bayern Munich and precisely PSG.
Leo Messi left FC Barcelona for PSG, according to his own words, to win the Champions League and, as happened in recent years with Barça, he again suffered a severe setback with an unexpected elimination after 150 minutes of absolute dominance of the French in the tie. It is the seventh consecutive season that the best player in the world in the last decade is left without lifting the trophy and falls resoundingly.
Since in 2015 he won the European Cup in Berlin with Barça against Juventus (3-1), Messi has been resisting this competition, with some even blushing eliminations. Two have been in the round of 16 (2020-2021 and 2021-2022), four in the quarterfinals (2015-2016, 2016-2017, 2017-2018, 2019-2020) and one in the semifinals (2018-2019).
The first KO came in 2016, against Atlético de Madrid. After winning 2-1 at the Camp Nou, two goals from Antoine Griezmann at the Calderón turned the series around. It’s the smoothest fiasco, seen those who came after,
In 2017 it was Juventus that brought down Barça after winning 3-0 in Turin and holding on 0-0 in the second leg.
The following year, 2018, Roma came back with a 3-0 win over the 4-1 that the Catalans had achieved at the Camp Nou.
The defeat in 2019 was also tough. Messi scored a brace in the 3-0 win against Liverpool in the first leg, but Barça fell 4-0 in the second leg.
The edition of the pandemic was no less humiliating, in 2020, when Bayern Munich endorsed the Blaugrana 8-2 in a single match.
Last year, in 2021, PSG was precisely the executioner of the team led by the Argentine, with a resounding 1-4 in the first leg and tied at one in the second leg.
The change of scenery has not changed the trend. After being far superior to Madrid for most of the tie, a few minutes of madness and errors by PSG once again dropped the Argentine from the top European competition.