Pep Guardiola Was Right – No System Can Stop Messi

Pep Guardiola cannot complain. He had Lionel Messi’s magic for four formidable seasons at
Barcelona.

On Wednesday night, the Catalan coach was on the receiving end of the Argentine’s astonishing abilities for the first time.The monster he helped create chewed up his best-laid plans.

But he won’t have been surprised. In the build- up to this tie, Guardiola said: “When he plays like this, there is no defence that can stop him.


It’s impossible. He is used to players defending
against him any way they can and he always ends up enjoying success. He is too good.”

He could very well say the same after the game. As usual, Messi was too good. At this level,

games

are decided by the very best – and Messi is just that. “There is no more player complete than Leo,” Guardiola once said. “He is the best at everything.”

During his time at Camp Nou, Pep always admitted his side would be a shadow of themselves without the Argentine among their ranks.

“We would be a very good team and we would be
competitive,” he stressed. “But we wouldn’t have won all that we have.”

Too true. Pep won 14 out of 19 titles at Barca –
including six out of six in his first year. Meanwhile,
Guardiola’s great work at Bayern has seen back-to-back Bundesliga championships claimed with relative ease, yet the Catalan coach was expected to turn the Bavarians into Europe’s elite team – which they were before his arrival as they won the treble and brutally beat an out-of-sorts Barca en route to the Champions League crown.