5 times top players were made to look terrible

#1. Messi obliterates Jerome Boateng and shows Neuer who is boss

No banana peels involved

'When I meet Messi on the pitch, I will show him who's boss.'

These were the words of Manuel Neuer, arguably the greatest goalkeeper of his generation as Bayern took on Barcelona in the first leg of the 2015 UEFA Champions League semifinal match.

The German spoke too soon and became the subject of the great lil one's wrath. And Jerome Boateng was collateral damage.

In the 80th minute of the game, Lionel Messi used no hands but just the magic in his feet to knock the cuckoo out of the gigantic Jerome Boateng. Messi went on one of his signature runs on the left flank and with a drop of his shoulder teased Boateng into thinking that he is going to cut in and shoot. But Messi said not tonight and bid the German goodbye and carried on down his path before dinking the ball over Manuel Neuer to extend the Catalans' lead.

Jerome Boateng collapsed like Liston to Ali and fell right on top of the thorns of the meme world.

As for Neuer, I guess he now takes orders when Messi's around.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Amit Mishra