Lionel Messi has talked about facing England for the first time, with none of Arsenal’s England internationals ever having played against him before.
England’s recent victory over Norway sent them into the World Cup semi-finals this midweek, with Thomas Tuchel’s side to face Argentina on Wednesday.
Rather unusually for 39-year-old Lionel Messi, he’ll be facing an entirely new opponent, having never played against England in his 21-year international career.
Messi’s last opportunity to face England was in a friendly in 2005, but he missed the match through a red-card suspension. The eight-time ballon d’Or winner has faced every other team in FIFA’s top-10 except Morocco (and Argentina), and he’s scored against six of the seven he’s played against.
The player himself is looking forward to the game, and to playing against England at long last.
“Facing England will be special,” Messi said (via Fabrizio Romano). “It’s my first time playing against England. I’ve played against just about everyone except them.
“They are a great team, a football powerhouse, it’s always exciting to face opponents like that.”
Given Messi has never previously faced England, it perhaps shouldn’t be too surprising that Arsenal’s four England internationals (Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Noni Madueke, and Eberechi Eze) will all be meeting him on the pitch for the first time.
Arsenal only returned to the Champions League in 2023 after a relatively lengthy absence, the same summer that Messi left PSG for Inter Miami.
Since then, the only time any of the four players has been close to playing against Messi is when Madueke attended the Club World Cup, but Inter Miami never faced Chelsea.
Wednesday’s semi-final is certainly set to be a huge occasion for the Arsenal quartet.
Messi’s record against FIFA’s top-10 ranked teams
- France: 3 appearances (3 goals, 2 assists)
- Argentina: N/A
- Spain: 3 appearances (2 goals)
- England: –
- Brazil: 14 appearances (5 goals)
- Morocco: –
- Portugal: 2 appearances (1 goal, 1 assist)
- Belgium: 1 appearance
- Netherlands: 3 appearances (1 goal, 1 assist)
- Mexico: 6 appearances (4 goals, 3 assists)
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