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What's the story?
Lionel Messi’s sensational 28-yard free-kick against Liverpool has been voted as the Champions League Goal of the Tournament.
In case you didn’t know…
Messi might have failed to lead Barcelona to another possible treble, but in terms of personal achievements, there is no other player in the world who can match Messi’s accomplishments this season.
The Barcelona skipper bagged 51 goals in just 50 appearances across all competitions in the 2018-19 campaign. Messi also secured his sixth European Golden Shoe by netting 36 goals in La Liga. Despite enduring a disastrous semi-final exit from the Champions League, Messi still managed to top the scoring charts of the European competition with 12 goals to his name.
UEFA recently released a list of top ten goals from the 2018-19 Champions League campaign in which Messi’s outrageous free-kick goal occupied the second spot, while Cristiano Ronaldo’s stunner against Manchester United at the group stage won the best Goal of the Tournament jury award.
Several eyebrows were raised after this incident as many of the football fans questioned the order of the list.
The heart of the matter
Messi’s free-kick against Liverpool in the Champions League semi-final first leg at the Camp Nou has been voted as the best Goal of the Tournament, with the UEFA posting a video of the same on their website. Messi scored the goal in the 82nd minute to put Barcelona 3-0 up. But unfortunately, Liverpool won the return leg 4-0 at Anfield to knock the Catalan giants out of the competition.
UEFA also took to Twitter to congratulate the Argentine.
“Bravo, Leo!” the tweet read.
What’s next?
Messi is expected to play some minutes in Argentina’s friendly match against Nicaragua on the 7th of June, ahead of their Copa America campaign in Brazil.
