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Looking at what Lionel Messi has done in the past few years, it is arguable that he is the greatest player ever to play the beautiful game of football. His dribbling, passing, creativity, and ability to score goals is what separates him from others.
Besides, tearing oppositions apart, making defenders dizzy and humiliating goalkeepers is what he does consistently. This has made so many goalkeepers to label him as a 'big trouble'.
His brilliance has made it a big achievement for goalkeepers to keep clean sheets against him and that is reasonable if you consider the rate at which he scores. In the past few years, some keepers have succeeded in stopping him for some time and it is worth taking a look at these awesome guys.
Below are some of the 'keepers:
#5 Claudio Bravo
Claudio Bravo has been really excellent in recent years. If you look at what he has achieved with Chile in his career, you will realise that he is truly a great goalkeeper. He is one of the few keepers that have earned the privilege to play alongside Lionel Messi both on the same team and as opponents.
He has stopped Messi on many occasions and denied him the privilege to score against him for a while. It took Messi some time before he could overcome that hurdle. He kept 2 clean sheets against Leo in matches between Argentina and Chile on October 13, 2007, and October 15, 2008, respectively.
Messi finally got ahead of him when he scored 2 goals to beat the record in a 5-0 victory against Real Sociedad on December 12, 2010.
Besides, he has also scored many goals against the goalkeeper since then including a hat-trick when Barcelona met Manchester City in the Champions League last season. However, it is also impressive to know that since then, Bravo has also silenced the 5-time Ballon d'Or winner several times, including the 0-0 at the final of the Copa America in 2016.
#4 Edwin Van Der Sar
Edwin Van Der Sar is a name well recognised in the Premier League, especially at Old Trafford. His name will never be forgotten at Manchester United. The legendary goalkeeper did really well to be on the list. He met Lionel Messi a couple of times and somehow, managed to silence the Argentina magician.
He kept Messi at bay in some crucial matches. The pair clashed in the knock out stages of the UEFA Champions League on April 23, 2008. Van Der Sar produced some impressive efforts to keep both Messi and Barcelona goalless in the clash that ended 0-0 at Camp Nou. In the reverse fixture on April 29, 2008, he repeated the feat again in a silent night for Messi and Manchester United eliminated Barcelona with a narrow 1-0 win.
However, Messi later got his revenge when the two teams met again, this time at the final of the same competition, scoring a goal in a 2-0 victory for Barcelona on May 28, 2009.
#3 Manuel Neuer
Another goalkeeper that also kept impressive clean sheets versus Messi is Bayern Munich goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer. The German maestro is one of the best goalkeepers of the modern era.
His achievements with Bayern Munich and Germany earned him a spot on the Ballon d'Or podium in 2014. This suggests how good he is and why it is not a surprise that he subdued Messi for some time.
Neuer denied Messi on different occasions. Barcelona met Bayern Munich in the semifinals of the Champions League in 2013. Bayern outclassed Barcelona with a convincing 7-0 victory in two legs, a clash in which Messi failed to score.
Later, the duo met in the World Cup final in 2014 and the German managed to maintain his clean sheet record before they finally clashed during a semi-final match when Barcelona were drawn against Bayern Munich in 2015.
In the first leg of the match, which was played on 6th May 2015, Messi produced an outstanding moment when he beat Manuel Neuer with an impeccable shot from outside the box.
He then went on to humiliate both Jerome Boateng and the German goalkeeper to score the second goal. Messi destroyed the clean sheet record in a memorable fashion and his second goal was picked as the Champions League best goal of the season.
#2 Gianluigi Buffon
The most recent man to taste Messi's humiliation after a long time is Gianluigi Buffon. The Italian star is one of the few goalkeepers who has managed to stay out of Messi's trouble for some time. He denied Messi on 3 different occasions.
On the 6th of June 2015, he overcame Messi with some outstanding saves in the final of the UEFA Champions League, which Barca won 3-1. He also kept Messi at bay in the two legs of last season's Champions League elimination of Barcelona in the quarterfinals.
However, when the pair clashed again in the Champions League last month, Messi finally got the better of his rival in a 3-0 victory at the Camp Nou stadium, scoring two vital goals to prevail over his juju.
#1 Petr Cech
No one has stopped Messi on more occasions than Petr Cech. The outstanding goalkeeper put in impressive performances to deny Lionel Messi on multiple occasions. This does not come as a surprise if you analyse what the goalkeeper was capable of doing.
He stopped the Barca legend from seeing the back of the net on 7 different occasions. The iconic goalkeeper clashed with the Argentine during his time at Chelsea from 2006 to 2012 as he prevented Messi from scoring after various attempts.
The duo faced each other again in 2016 when Arsenal, after buying Petr Cech, was drawn against Barcelona in the Champions League knockout stages. Messi overcame this hurdle by scoring two wonderful goals against Cech in the match.
After the game, Petr Cech was full of praises for the Barca legend.
