Former Liverpool star Alvaro Arbeloa has shared how Lionel Messi made it ‘simpler’ to mark him throughout their well-known Champions League matches towards Barcelona.
Messi, 36 has had blended outcomes towards the Reds, successful two and dropping two of his 4 aggressive conferences, however he was knocked out of the Champions League on each events. The most memorable comeback was a 4-0 victory at Anfield within the semi-finals in 2019, whereas Liverpool additionally progressed on away objectives because of a 2-1 win on the Camp Nou within the 2007 knockout phases.
Arbeloa joined the Reds from Deportivo La Coruna for £2.6million in January 2007 and was given a tricky debut project marking Messi in Catalonia. Despite enjoying out of place at left-back, nevertheless, he managed to maintain the ahead quiet throughout each legs of the tie, per the Liverpool Echo.
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Looking again, Arbeloa revealed how Rafa Benitez arrange his staff to outsmart Barcelona. He additionally talked about Messi, who was solely 19 on the time, made it easier to maintain him beneath management.
“We played that day with me at left-back,” the 41-year-old instructed The Coaches’ Voice. “Two strikers up front, although [Dirk] Kuyt played a bit further back. [John Arne] Riise usually played at full-back, but that day [he] played ahead of me. That day, I had to mark Messi. I remember it perfectly. Rafa Benitez came to training one day in Liverpool and he told me that I was going to play left-back to mark Messi.
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“Rafa saw clearly that he was a player who tended to go inside, and he thought that I could do well in that position – which was new for me. It was also my debut in the Champions League and before it, we went to Portugal for a mini-training camp where we prepared for the game.
“The primary distinction from the Messi I marked that day to a couple years later was that then Messi would virtually all the time obtain very, very extensive which made it simpler for me to mark. Not fairly man-to-man, however by dropping rather a lot in my zone and virtually letting him obtain on the wing.
“That made it easier for me to be very close to him, and I also had Riise’s defensive help throughout. I think I remember that it was [Juliano] Belletti, the Barca right-back, who didn’t overlap a lot in that tie. He was quite an attacking player, but he didn’t overlap much so I always had Riise’s help.
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“Maybe the difference in the later version of Messi, who was obviously still as good, was that he started in a freer role and came to receive more in the square [between defenders] or dropped further back to receive. That made it very difficult for an opponent to get as close to him as I was in that game.”
A 2-1 win in Spain set Liverpool as much as attain the 2007 quarter-finals, with Riise and Craig Bellamy scoring their objectives that day. Eidur Gudjohnsen acquired the one end at Anfield within the reverse fixture, however the away objectives had been sufficient to take the Reds by for a well-known victory en path to that 12 months’s ultimate.
Arbeloa added: “What Rafa wanted was for me to always let him receive the ball on the flank. He wasn’t too worried about Messi coming out wide, because he came out on his right foot – and that’s what we tried to do in that tie, which went very well. We won 2-1 in Barcelona, and even though they beat us 1-0 in Liverpool, we managed to eliminate a Barcelona team that had been European champions the year before.
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“One of the things that also worked in my favour in this case when I was marking Leo Messi, and something that I insist on a lot with my players, is that Leo always tended to ask for the ball into his feet. I wasn’t worried that he would look to get in behind me.
“He wasn’t a participant who would come and ask for the ball after which break into the area behind. That made it simpler for me to remain on high of him, and I did not thoughts leaping at any time when he went. If Leo dropped, I might go as a result of there wasn’t that risk in behind, and since Riise was additionally there. Sometimes, even when I pushed up rather a lot with Leo, he would drop and canopy my place.”
“Another of the directions that Rafa gave us was when to depart him. That’s some of the vital issues if you end up marking a participant. In the second half Leo tried to get out rather a lot.
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“The main difficulty when you release is to know if another player is going to pick him up. If I stayed with him but then he goes and goes, I had to communicate with Momo [Sissoko], in this example, so that he can get to him. If Momo has dropped, I never worried about following him because I always had Riise to help.”
“In this case, we were almost a double full-back, and he covered me a lot in this position. So even if it wasn’t a man-marking job in theory, in reality it pretty much was.”