What is it like to face Lionel Messi? Inside the mind of Argentina’s genius as England finally find out | OneFootball

It is perhaps an insight into the mind of a genius in terms of how he plays, if not necessarily how he thinks.

In the brief words that Lionel Messi has already said about England-Argentina, he’s talked as if it’s just another big game. That’s not a tactic, either, in the way manager Lionel Scaloni has attempted to diffuse so much discussion of the Falklands.

You can see the same from Messi in a completely different setting.

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Lionel Messi possesses a singular footballing focus (Getty)

In the Amazon documentary series about Diego Simeone, Living Match by Match’ there’s inevitably an entire episode that builds up to the famous World Cup last-16 match in 1998. All manner of figures speak, from Javier Zanetti to a smiling David Beckham, and even Messi.

The Argentine great is friends with Simeone and the interview is presumably used just because he’s Messi, since he doesn’t say much.

As everyone else goes into the unique feeling of England-Argentina, the emotion and fire, perhaps Argentina’s greatest ever player comes out with the following.

“I very much remember the 1998 World Cup that I watched a lot, with my family. We went out to play football on the street after the match.”

And that’s it.

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Lionel Messi appears able to separate himself from the emotion of a single game (Getty)

In other words, this great spectacle of an occasion didn’t really move a child just turned 11, other than cause him to go out and kick a ball himself. Messi just… plays.

And it’s actually that which poses the true danger for England, as the national team faces maybe the greatest player of all time for the first time. That fact or the opposition don’t mean all that much to Messi, outside being another fixture in pursuit of the greatest prize of all. As those close to him say: “He treats a match against Cincinnati away on a Wednesday night the same as he does Brazil.”

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Lionel Messi is able to sit above the emotional maelstrom (Getty)

It’s only the World Cup itself that brings an extra wonder, explaining those tears after Egypt. He might see all of this as a bonus since Qatar but he’s aware every game could be his last in the competition, and wants to prolong it.

Those around him certainly don’t want this particular fixture to be the last.

It is a quirk of history that England have never faced Messi, a consequence of the luck of the draw, the power of big clubs and international football politics. That is almost a shame in the context of one the great football nations never getting to face one of the great players at his peak, even if it spared some defenders humiliation.

Even those embarrassed by Messi, however, end up seeing it as a privilege. That, to their credit, is how Nico O’Reilly and Jordan Pickford are viewing it.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” O’Reilly said. “I can’t wait for the challenge.”

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Nico O'Reilly is embracing the tough task in front of him (Getty)

Pickford enthused how “it’s great to finally come up against him after so long, and watching him as a kid.”

They might also take influence from predecessors like Ashley Cole, who were inspired by the challenge. England’s great left-back remains proud of how Messi never scored in a club game against him.

The Argentine great has actually started to drift back out towards that side in this World Cup, when he’s sought to decide games late on.

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Ashley Cole (right) was one of few to get the better of Lionel Messi in their meetings (Getty)

And if Messi at 39 isn’t the same as when he did most damage from that area in his early twenties, or even Messi at 35, longevity has enhanced one inherent quality to his game.

It is, yes, how he thinks.

For all the inevitable focus on Messi’s technique or any of the more spectacular elements of his career, most of the best defenders end up being struck by his football intelligence.

It is described as being unlike anything anyone has ever seen, as if he has precognition.

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Lionel Messi has a remarkable footballing intelligence (Getty)

A common line is that it’s “like in the Matrix”.

That really comes from those famous stretches at the start of games when Messi is roaming around not appearing to do much at all - which have admittedly stretched much longer into matches - when he is actually computing every aspect of play; making a map of the game - how a defence moves; where the gaps appear; which defender is most susceptible to being run at.

Increasing research shows that super-talented athletes are more developed in certain aspects of their brain, especially as regards the ability to internalise information at speed in relation to space, and this is that.

The typically chaotic 3-2 win over Egypt was a perfect illustration of how it works in practice.

Messi was close to dismal for 73, the nature of his missed penalty summing up what seemed a half-hearted display.

He was simply biding his time. It’s not like Erling Haaland, where he’s waiting for the opening. Messi is waiting for the right moment. So, on 73 minutes of that last-16 tie, purposely going out to the left, Messi then picked up the ball and drove at the left side of the Egypt defence at pace as if he was 23 again.

The game changed. It was from that same area he crossed for Cristiano Romero to score and from that same area he darted in to equalise.

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Lionel Messi can be at his most dangerous when appearing to drift through games (Getty)

That is why Thomas Tuchel knows that those long lulls when Messi appears to be doing nothing could end up meaning everything by the end.

It’s a unique challenge for a manager, too, since Messi’s very presence exerts this gravitational effect on the entire game. You have to shape your whole approach around him, knowing just one slip can let him in.

When at Chelsea, the week of Messi’s evisceration of Bayern Munich’s Jerome Boateng in the 2014-15 Champions League semi-final, Jose Mourinho gave a detailed explanation of how you try to prepare.

“Every time I was thinking about how best collectively – I am not staying stop him – give him a difficult match,” Mourinho suggested. “I think this is the correct word. It is not about stopping him but giving him a difficult match. That is the best you do against him.”

That is what England have to try. Tuchel probably has many more higher quality players at his disposal than Argentina, in a much more mobile team… but he doesn’t have Messi, no matter how effective Jude Bellingham is.

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Messi has seemed fallible from the penalty spot during the tournament (Reuters)

The one remaining fallibility is a returning one: penalties. There is a very real chance this match goes the distance and to a shoot-out. In which case, Messi’s World Cup record of four misses out of eight indicates a 50-50 chance of a near-perfect player missing.

Is that really how this is going to end?

“It wouldn’t even cross my mind to go and tell him not to," Scaloni says. "Let him do whatever he wants out on the pitch.”

By the end of a game, after all, Messi tends to know it better than anyone.

England are finally going to know what it’s like to face him.