Every time Lionel Messi has faced a member of England’s World Cup squad | OneFootball

Lionel Messi will face England for the first time in his career but it will not be the first time he has faced off against some of the Three Lions.

Having missed a 2005 friendly due to suspension, Messi will take to the field against England for the first time this week but plenty of Thomas Tuchel’s squad will be well aware of what it is like to face him.

Five members of the current England squad have played against Messi and here’s what happened in each of those nine meetings.

John Stones

Messi’s first game against a member of this England squad came almost a decade ago when Barcelona met Manchester City in the Champions League.

John Stones started in the City backline, but they were quickly outclassed by a brilliant Messi performance. He opened the scoring in the first half before a red card to City keeper Claudio Bravo blew the game open.

Messi scored twice in eight minutes and completed his hat-trick on Pep Guardiola’s first trip to the Camp Nou with his Manchester side. Messi would even give a penalty to Neymar late in the game.

City and Stones got their revenge a few weeks later when they hosted the return fixture at the Etihad in a game dominated by Ilkay Gundogan.

He scored either side of a Kevin De Bruyne free kick as City came back from a one-goal deficit.

And who scored that Barcelona goal? Messi, of course.

That was the only game Barcelona failed to win in the group stage, topping it with a six-point gap to City in second.

Having twice played against him with Barcelona, Stones faced Messi for a third time in 2021 with the Argentine at PSG.

After a goalless first half, PSG took the lead at the Etihad via Mbappe but City hit back thanks to Raheem Sterling.

Gabriel Jesus then scored what proved to be the winner as Stones got his second win against Messi.

Harry Kane

Kane first came up close to Messi in the 2018 Champions League when Spurs were put into a group with Barcelona, Inter Milan and PSV.

The first fixture was at Wembley with Barcelona scoring after two minutes thanks to Philippe Coutinho. They then doubled their advantage although Kane did pull one back shortly after half time.

Within a matter of minutes, the deficit returned to two as Messi scored before helping himself to another in the 90th minute.

Tottenham fared better in the reverse fixture as they held Barcelona to a 1-1 draw at the Camp Nou.

Again, Barcelona scored early, this time through Ousmane Dembele, but Lucas Moura snatched a point with five minutes to go.

Barcelona topped the group but it was Spurs who would reach the final that season, losing to Liverpool in Madrid.

Marcus Rashford

Having played Tottenham in the group stages, Barcelona faced their second of what would be three English opponents in the quarter finals.

They were drawn against Rashford’s Manchester United and a Luke Shaw own goal in the 12th minute was all that separated the sides during the meeting at Old Trafford.

Barcelona sealed their progression with a far more comfortable 3-0 win at the Camp Nou.

Messi scored twice in four minutes to put Barcelona in control of the tie before Coutinho added a third in the 61st minute.

Jordan Henderson

Liverpool may have been happy to leave the Camp Nou with a one-goal deficit as the clock ticked into the 75th and yet Messi did what he so often does and changed the game.

The Argentine scored against Jordan Henderson’s Liverpool in the 75th minute before a ridiculously good free kick in the 82nd that had a full stretch Alisson get nowhere near it.

Barcelona ended the game 3-0 winners against Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool and many thought that was that.

That proved not to be that though as Liverpool pulled off one of the most remarkable comebacks in Champions League history.

Henderson played the full 90 as Liverpool scored four goals without reply to go through at the expense of the Catalans.

Messi’s most memorable moment in that match came from when Andy Robertson angrily shoved the Argentine’s head while he was on the floor.

Afterwards, Messi said that “We let them walk all over us.”

Djed Spence

It’s been more than three years since a current England player faced Messi and surprisingly the last person to do it was Spence.

This meeting came in Ligue 1 when Spence was on loan at Rennes from Tottenham. The full back only played eight times for the French club but one of those came against Messi’s PSG.

And yet neither Messi nor Kylian Mbappe was able to breach the Rennes defence that day.

Playing as the right wing back of a back five, Spence helped Rennes, who finished 17 points behind PSG that season, to a 2-0 win.

Spence played 78 minutes of the game, sharing the right flank with Desire Doue.