Revealed: The Only Defender that Kept Lionel Messi Quiet For An Entire Game

Lionel Messi has taken on the best defenders on the planet and that has never been a problem for him. But there is one man who was particularly really tough. He was so hard to shake off that he had time to talk to messi for half the match.

Girona FC vs FC Barcelona, a Catalan Derby that was supposed to go like clockwork for messi, shoot, score and show the fans some love. Except that he ran into Pablo maffeo and his 3 secrets to success were marking, marking and more marking. Maffeo had the difficult task of marking Messi as closely as possible. However, through out the game, Maffeo and Messi were on another planet.








But Maffeo coped miraculously well, although Barcelona won the game 3-0. But Messi spent the entire match not making an impact. Maffeo did such a good job that he had time to talk to the Argentine.

"He asked me if I was on loan from Manchester City and my age, he is very humble. We were talking because I was stucked to him for almost all of the match, there was no bad feeling or anything strange. He is the best player in the world and if you don't stick to him, he can score at any moment" -Pablo maffeo


If you think Messi is patient, you're right but he still told Maffeo what he thought about man-marking,




"do you know what he said to me? playing like that is a bit crap" - Pablo maffeo

"Man-marking doesn't bother me, in truth it hasn't happened to me that often, it doesn't bother me but it is strange. I've never seen one who complains, I think physical contact and kicks are part of the game" - Lionel Messi







In any case, maffeo did a great job on loan from Manchester City at the time and pep guardiola praised his performance but even better, when Messi was asked a year later who was the toughest player he'd ever faced,

"He said Pablo maffeo of girona, that was intense" - Lionel Messi

However, maffeo later left girona for stugartt but he had a disastrous season and was loned back to girona again. So now he is in the Spanish 2nd division, but you never know maybe one day, we will get to see round 2 of 'LEO vs PABLO.