Who are Lionel Messi's favourite opponents?

Lionel Messi has played 160 European games over the years for Barcelona and now Paris Saint-Germain, all in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Super Cup, scoring 128 goals in meetings with 45 different clubs. Does he enjoy facing some teams more than others?

• Messi has scored 128 goals in 13,300 minutes of European football; that's a goal every 103 minutes and 54 seconds on average.

• The Argentinian has faced 45 different clubs in Europe (from 18 countries), failing to score against five: Atlético, Benfica, Inter, Rubin Kazan and Udinese. Atlético and Inter are the sides Messi has gone longest without scoring against: 360 minutes in UEFA competition.

• Chelsea are the team Messi has played the most minutes against (835 across ten matches); he did not score in his first 730 minutes facing the Blues but struck three times in two games against them in 2017/18.

• The only other team he encountered ten times in Europe with Barcelona were his new club Paris, totalling six goals over 794 minutes.

• The keeper who has gone the longest without conceding against Messi in Europe is Inter's Júlio César – 270 minutes – though Rubin Kazan's Sergei Ryzhikov may feel he has the moral right to that title. He went unbeaten in 237 minutes against Messi; that run took in four matches as opposed to Júlio César's three.

• Messi has scored more goals against Arsenal than any other team in UEFA competition – nine in 447 minutes comprising six games. On average, that's a goal every 49 minutes and 40 seconds.

• His most amenable opponents are Bayer Leverkusen: Messi has hit seven goals in 270 minutes against them, at a rate of one every 38 minutes and 34 seconds. Five of those strikes famously came in one match, a 7-1 win on 7 March 2012.

Who has Messi scored against in UEFA competition?

Which nations' clubs has Messi scored against?

• Of the big five European footballing nations, German opponents seem to suit Messi best: he scores on average every 75 minutes against Bundesliga clubs. Goals are much rarer against sides from England (every 111 minutes), France (121 minutes), Italy (162 minutes) and Spain (232 minutes).

• Messi may relish Portuguese defences least of all; in 478 minutes against Liga teams, he has scored just twice – a goal every 239 minutes.

When Messi has scored his UEFA club competition goals

• Messi is relatively slow to get started after the whistle; his least prolific scoring periods are at the start of either half. By contrast, he seems to hit something of a critical goalscoring mass in the closing stages: 15 goals between the 86th minute and the final whistle.

Last updated 09/03/2022