Leo Messi helped teammates in Pep's spell – how he gifted Ibrahimovic penalty after Zlatan missed sitters
Barcelona defeated Real Zaragoza 4-2 in one of Lionel Messi's best La Liga performances of Pep Guardiola's era in March 2010.
Aside from scoring a hat-trick at La Romareda, the Argentine also gifted Zlatan Ibrahimovic a penalty so that the Swede can finally find the back of the net after missing no less than three clear cut chances on that night.
Sitter miss №1
Sitter miss №2
Sitter miss №3
Messi earned a spot-kick in the 90th minute when Barca were 3-2 up but he decided to pass the penalty to Ibra who was visibly irritated by his misses.
Thankfully, Zlatan fired the ball past Roberto to make it 4-2 for the Catalans and take one step towards the La Liga title that year.
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Zlatan Ibrahimovic: I was scoring more than Messi. He went to Pep and said 'I want to play in the centre'
"Messi started saying things. Lionel Messi is amazing. He's totally amazing. He joined Barca when he was 13. He was brought up in that culture and doesn't have a problem with that school crap. But now I was there, and I was scoring more goals than him," Zlatan Ibrahimovic wrote in his autobiography.
"He went to Guardiola and said: 'I don't want to be on the right-wing any more, I want to play in the centre.' I was the striker. Guardiola didn't give a damn about that, though. He changed the tactical formation. Guardiola had to listen to him. But I mean, come on, I had scored loads of goals at Barca and I'd been pretty awesome as well."
An unnamed Barcelona teammate corroborated Ibrahimovic's assertions.
"If someone scored more than him [Messi] or spoke more than him they'd be in trouble. He was wary of Zlatan and was complaining all the time to Guardiola," the player said, as per journalist Liam Canning.
Ibrahimovic eventually left on loan for Milan in the summer of 2010. The big Swede scored 21 goals in 45 appearances during his sole season at Barca.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic snubs Leo Messi as he names Ronaldo Nazario the GOAT
"I don't need to describe Ronaldo, 'The Phenomenon'," former Barcelona forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic has said in an interview with Discovery Plus.
"I always say you have the players that play the game, and the players that are the game. For me, Ronaldo is the game. When you watch him play, everyone wanted to play like him and become like him.
"The way he was moving, the way he did his stepovers, the way he did 'the snake'. The way he was moving, for me he's the greatest player through history, no doubt."
Well, Ronaldo could've probably reached the levels of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo but his career was torn apart by constant injuries.
The legendary Brazilian scored 296 goals in 452 appearances on a club level, including 47 strikes in 49 outings for Barca in the 1996/97 season.
Hence, it would be probably a bit unfair to rate Ronaldo over Messi who has already netted more goals than the Brazilian played games - 657.
