Lionel Messi: What's it like to face the Barcelona legend?

Former Tottenham centre-back Toby Alderweireld has named Lionel Messi as the toughest opponent he has ever faced.

Alderweireld, who currently represents Belgian First Division A side Royal Antwerp, made his admission in a recent podcast interview, which has been summarised in a viral Twitter thread by user @lapulgafreak.

During their respective careers, Alderweireld and Messi have crossed paths at both club and international level – with the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner enjoying bragging rights more often than not.

It was during a 2018 Champions League group stage match, though, that Alderweireld admitted he couldn’t get anywhere near Messi.

“I usually read the play on the field and often I succeed. But Messi…ooh. One night at Wembley when we lost 4-2 against Barcelona (with Tottenham) he was unprecedented…really unprecedented.

“You can’t get a grip on him. Everything he does, he does it just that little bit faster than you. He does this, then he does that, it goes so fast. I really had a feeling I couldn’t do anything against him.

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“You just hope time goes as fast as possible. (Laughs) We got back into the game which was positive and negative. We started attacking more but I had to face him even more one-on-one because there was more space.

“That’s the thing, you don’t know what he’s going to do. That’s the special thing, you can’t train for that.

“You try to get in duels with him. He looks like a slender guy so you try to get physical. But he’s not slender at all, if you look at his thighs you think…wow. He is so fast. The quality, the ball control, It’s not normal.

“Yeah, I played against Ronaldo many times. Of course, his numbers don’t lie, but Messi