Lionel Messi scores from Neymar assist in match-winning highlights for PSG vs Lyon

Lionel Messi is experiencing whatever the opposite of second-season-syndrome is right now at Paris Saint-Germain.

On the back of a disappointing first year at the Parc des Princes which saw him miss out on a Ballon d’Or nomination, the legend himself has flown out of the blocks for the 2022/23 campaign.

In fact, remarkably, Messi has already helped himself to four Ligue 1 goals from his eight outings so far this season when he only amassed six strikes in the competition across the entirety of 2021/22.

Sure, that might not make for the sort of head-spinning statistics we see from Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe these days, but boy is it still an emphatic return to form.

Anyway, though, much of the brilliance that Messi has been showcasing this season has come in the playmaking department with his frankly ridiculous range of passing orchestrating so many of PSG’s most potent attacks.

The Barcelona icon really does seem to have leant into his later-career evolution of dropping deeper and pulling the creative strings, finding Mbappe and Neymar time after time with perfectly weighted through-balls.

But don’t think for one second that Messi doesn’t still have the ability to win crucial games with his own goalscoring touch because that was exactly what happened against Lyon on Sunday night.

In what always proves to be one of the standout fixtures in the French footballing calendar, Messi proved the difference with a decisive fifth-minute strike that set up PSG for a 1-0 victory.

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner was typically involved in the build-up, as were Mbappe and Neymar, before sweeping home a beautiful left-footed finish that you can check out down below:

It's taken just over four minutes for PSG to take the lead