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What's the story?
Lionel Messi is having yet another record-breaking season for Barcelona, with the Argentine scoring a sensational brace against Manchester United on Tuesday night to propel the Blaugrana into the UEFA Champions League semi-finals, where they are set to face Premier League leaders Liverpool.
Liverpool gaffer Jurgen Klopp is relishing the challenge to play against possibly the greatest player to ever play the game and seems to have a definite game plan to stop the 'Messiah'.
In case you didn't know...
Messi is having another otherworldly season, even by his standards, leading the goalscoring charts in both the Champions League and the La Liga. 'La Pulga' has scored an incredible 45 goals already this season and chipped in with 15 assists as Barcelona look on course for a treble.
He is way ahead in the European Golden Boot standings with 33 league goals. Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappe is second in the list with 27 goals to his name in Ligue 1.
On the other hand, Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool are having a sensational season, emerging as genuine contenders for the English Premier League title and breezing into the UEFA Champions League semifinals with a 6-1 aggregate win over Portuguese champions FC Porto. With
The heart of the matter
Asked how the Merseysiders will keep out an in-from Messi, Jurgen Klopp gave some candid replies, as reported by Metro:
"‘Thank God I don’t have to think about that tonight,’ joked the German when asked about the challenge of facing the mercurial Argentine.We still will try it. We’re looking forward to it, but we have so many jobs to do before we meet Barcelona, so let’s first play these games and then prepare for Barcelona and then we will see"
As a manager, Klopp has never played against Barcelona in a competitive game and the ex-Borussia Dortmund manager sounded confident about his chances.
"‘I’ve never played Barcelona in a proper game, so my first time there, I’m looking forward to it"
What's next?
Liverpool, who booked their place in the semi-finals of the Champions League by beating Porto 6-1 on aggregate, will face Barcelona later in the month for the first leg before welcoming them to Anfield in early May.
