Who were Lionel Messi's favourite opponents?

Lionel Messi played 167 European games over the years for Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, all in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Super Cup, scoring 132 goals in meetings with 46 different clubs. Did he enjoy facing some teams more than others?

• Messi scored 132 goals in 14,005 minutes of European football; that's a goal every 106 minutes and six seconds on average.

• The Argentinian forward faced 46 different clubs in Europe (from 19 countries), failing to score against only four: Atlético de Madrid, Inter, Rubin Kazan and Udinese. Atleti and Inter are the sides Messi went longest without scoring against: 360 minutes in UEFA competition.

• Chelsea are the team Messi 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 Paris, totalling six goals over 794 minutes.

• The goalkeeper who went the longest without conceding against Messi in Europe was 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 scored more goals against Arsenal than any other team in UEFA competition – nine in 537 minutes comprising six games. On average, that's a goal every 59 minutes and 40 seconds.

• His most amenable opponents were Bayer Leverkusen: Messi 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 did Messi score against in UEFA competition?

Which nations' clubs did Messi score against?

• Of the big five European footballing nations, German opponents seemed to suit Messi best: he scored on average every 84 minutes against Bundesliga clubs. Goals were much rarer against sides from England (every 114 minutes), France (121 minutes), Italy (174 minutes) and Spain (232 minutes).

• Messi may have relished Portuguese defences least of all; in 559 minutes against Liga teams, he scored just three times – a goal every 186 minutes.

• Messi's goal against Israeli champions Maccabi Haifa on Matchday 2 of the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League was his first against a club from that country in his first game.

When did Messi score his UEFA club competition goals?

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

Last updated 24/06/2023