5 Goalkeepers that made Messi struggle
Looking at what Lionel Messi has done in the past few years, it is arguable that he is the greatest player ever to play the beautiful game of football. His dribbling, passing, creativity, and ability to score goals is what separates him from others.
Besides, tearing oppositions apart, making defenders dizzy and humiliating goalkeepers is what he does consistently. This has made so many goalkeepers to label him as a 'big trouble'.
His brilliance has made it a big achievement for goalkeepers to keep clean sheets against him and that is reasonable if you consider the rate at which he scores. In the past few years, some keepers have succeeded in stopping him for some time and it is worth taking a look at these awesome guys.
Below are some of the 'keepers:
#5 Claudio Bravo
Claudio Bravo has been really excellent in recent years. If you look at what he has achieved with Chile in his career, you will realise that he is truly a great goalkeeper. He is one of the few keepers that have earned the privilege to play alongside Lionel Messi both on the same team and as opponents.
He has stopped Messi on many occasions and denied him the privilege to score against him for a while. It took Messi some time before he could overcome that hurdle. He kept 2 clean sheets against Leo in matches between Argentina and Chile on October 13, 2007, and October 15, 2008, respectively.
Messi finally got ahead of him when he scored 2 goals to beat the record in a 5-0 victory against Real Sociedad on December 12, 2010.
Besides, he has also scored many goals against the goalkeeper since then including a hat-trick when Barcelona met Manchester City in the Champions League last season. However, it is also impressive to know that since then, Bravo has also silenced the 5-time Ballon d'Or winner several times, including the 0-0 at the final of the Copa America in 2016.