The German team is the rival against whom Leo has the worst record of the 166 he faced throughout his career.
The night he broke Jerome Boateng’s hip during Barcelona – Bayern Munich in the 2014/15 Champions League remains in the memory. An unforgettable day when Lionel Messi humiliated the then defender of the Bavarian team to help the Catalans to the final of the Champions League that season.
That postcard, however, is far from reflecting what Leo experienced every time he took on the mighty Bundesliga team: against every rival he’s faced in his career, the Argentine has a worse record than against the Bavarians.
Of the 166 teams Messi played against, only against five has a negative record after playing more than one game (Three others beat him in the only game they played against him) and Bayern is the only one with more than a win difference: the German team won four of Leo’s two wins.
In that sense, it’s worth taking a look at what the former Barça footballer’s numbers were like when the German cast was measured.
Lionel Messi vs. Bayern Munich: history, matches, goals, wins, losses, draws and statistics
The first leg of the 2022-23 Champions League round of 16, played at the Parc des Princes between PSG and Bayern (0-1 for the Germans in the French capital), represented Messi’s seventh game against him in Munich.
The first time Messi faced Bayern was for the quarter-finals of the 2008-09 Champions League. He played the 90 minutes of the first leg, scoring two goals and providing an assist in the 4-0 win for his team, Barcelona. In the return he also played the 90 minutes, but neither scored nor assisted in the 1-1 that put the culés through to the semi-finals. Barça would win that Champions League against Manchester United in the final.
The Argentinian’s third game against the Germans was for the semi-finals of the 2012-2013 Champions League. It was a forgettable draw for a Barcelona that fell 4-0 to Germany with Messi playing the full 90 minutes, and was knocked out at the Camp Nou in a 3-0 defeat. Messi was a substitute in the match played in Spain due to physical discomfort and had no playing minutes.
Messi would get his revenge in the 2014/15 semi-finals when he scored two goals and an assist in the 3-0 draw at Camp Nou on the night he broke Boateng’s hip with a huge dribble and imperial definition against Neuer. In the second leg, Barça fell 3–2, but qualified for the final. Leo played all 180 minutes of that tie.
August 2020 would come Messi’s biggest defeat of his career, with Bayern Munich endorsing Quique Setién’s Barcelona with a historic 8-2 in Lisbon, the venue of the Final Four hosted by UEFA due to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. Messi was the captain of that Catalan team that retired in the quarter-finals of the continental tournament.
Next, an overview of the figures that the Rosario registers in his matches against Bayern…
Source: Goal