Lionel Messi news: 'For me, Messi is the best player in the world and a joy to watch,' says Deli Alli

What's the story?

Tottenham Hotspur star Dele Alli has hailed Barcelona ace Lionel Messi as the best in the world ahead of the North London side's clash with the Catalan giants.

In case you didn't know...

Spurs are set to face the five-time European Champions tomorrow in a crucial Champions League clash that could either see them move to the knock-out stages of the competition or crash out of it entirely.

While Barcelona are already through to the next stage of Europe's top competition, Tottenham's future is still up in the air after they earned a point following losses to Inter Milan and Barcelona as well as a draw with PSV in their first three games in the competition. They have since made up for the bad start and are now at seven points.

The heart of the matter

Ahead of the clash, Dele Alli has heaped praise on Barcelona talisman Messi calling him the best in the world (via Goal): "He [Messi] is a player that everyone idolised because of what he's achieved in his career."

"For me, he is the best player in the world and he's a joy to watch. To be honest, though, I'm not really concerned about what they do with their players."

Despite the fact that Spurs have to achieve so much in a stadium as intimidating as the Nou Camp, Alli expressed confidence in his team.

"We are definitely going there with confidence, we know it's going to be a difficult game but they are human and everyone makes mistakes."

"We've just got to make sure that we punish them and be as on it as we can."

"They are one of the best teams in the world, they've got some great players and as a kid you dream about playing at the Nou Camp, and we're going to go there and give it our best shot."

"We're ready. It's going to be another difficult game but they're the games you want to be a part of, playing one of the best teams in the world and some of the world's greatest players."

"You want to be challenging yourself and we're going there with the mentality that we can win and we have to believe."

What's next?

Despite their decent run of form in the Premier League, the Champions League clash against Barcelona will do wonders for their confidence provided they make the best use of it.

As for Messi, he will be looking to continue his fine run of form.