After 'summer of pain', magical Messi takes out his frustrations on hapless Celtic

On Tuesday, Celtic became the inadvertent victims of Lionel Messi’s ‘summer of pain’, an innocent mugging victim who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Messi unleashed the full repertoire of his considerable skills on the hapless team and by end of it, Brendan Rodgers and his band of not-so-merry men were begging for the final whistle.

It has been a summer to forget for the Argentine. In the Copa America final, he missed a penalty as Argentina lost 4-2 to Chile and Messi promised never to play for the national team again. Never had the diminutive magician looked this pained, unable to understand how fate could conspire against him in every major final. If Higuain was the chief conspirator against Messi for missing clear-cut chances in three finals in a row, this time, the situation was exacerbated by referee Heber Roberto Lopes. The official gave one of the most bizarre performances ever seen in a football match as he showed cards to anything that moved.

A distraught Messi said after the match, "My thinking right now and thinking about it in the locker room, I'm done playing with the national team. I tried my hardest. It's been four finals, and I was not able to win. I tried everything possible. It hurts me more than anyone, but it is evident that this is not for me. I want more than anyone to win a title with the national team, but unfortunately, it did not happen." When asked if he’d play again, the Argentine replied: “I don't think so. I've thought about it. Like I said earlier, I tried everything possible to win. And that's it. It's four finals lost."

The situation was probably worsened as his great rival Ronaldo’s Portugal went on to win Euro 2016 against the hosts in France. Even though Ronaldo got injured in the final, the Portuguese managed to pick up their first major international cup which some deemed should put Ronaldo on a higher pedestal than Messi in the Greatest of All Times debate. And then there was the tax fraud case which saw Messi get at 21-month suspended jail sentence, which also made him a laughing stock after Barcelona launched a morally ambiguous campaign to defend him.

But Messi was convinced to make a U-turn on his retirement announcement and wiped away the summer of disappointment with one wide sweep of his magic wand. Throughout the match, Messi performed on an elevated level, the ones mortal men can’t hope to emulate, as he dribbled past defenders who looked on like statues and scored at will. This performance saw Messi score his sixth Champions League hat-trick (one more than Ronaldo) and also saw him get to within touching distance of Ronaldo’s Champions League goal tally (Ronaldo has 93, Messi 86).

The first goal was scored two minutes in, as Messi picked up a Neymar through ball, waltzed into the box and smashed it home with the nonchalance of a pool shark making his signature shot. Two minutes later he played an exquisite pass for the outflanking Alba who was offside but it sent out he signal that Argentine meant business tonight.

An exquisite cross-field ball for Suarez on 17 minutes saw him miss to connect by a whisker. After Celtic missed a penalty that would’ve equalised the score, Messi scored again in the 27^th minute as Barcelona literally walked the ball into the net as Messi and Neymar exchanged a couple of passes before Messi tapped into an open net. Neymar added a third in the second half with a free-kick, Iniesta smashed home an impeccable volley and Messi tapped in his third on the hour mark. Suarez scored two more to make it 7-0.

This was a Messi performing on a different level, the kind we saw Usain Bolt function at in Rio where he laughed and posed for the camera as his rivals ran for dear life. After the match, an awestruck Luiz Enrique summed it up pretty well saying: “Messi's the best in the world in every position. He plays with complete freedom to change his position as he wants. If he plays as a No.9, No.8 or No.6, he's the best No.9, No.8 or No.6 in the world. He can judge the perfect pass from 40 yards; he can put the ball wherever he wants. For me, he's the best player of all time."

While Ronaldo and his gigantic ego will surely disagree with the ‘best player of all time’ remark and seek to disprove that hypothesis wrong when Real go up against Sporting Lisbon, there’s absolutely no denying that Lionel is back to his very best and will strike fear into any opposition that seeks to contain his genius.