Messi Was Magnificent

BARCELONA, Spain — There were 95,000 people present at the Camp Nou to watch Barcelona beat Manchester City 1-0, but once you take into account the worldwide television audience, I’d guess there would have been upward of 100 million opinions.

Barca manager Luis Enrique joined in immediately after the match: “Leo Messi is the greatest player of all time”.

Multiply that feeling of positivity around all the continents whose viewers will have been glued to this remarkable, thrilling, uplifting night of football, and when I interviewed him postmatch, it looked and felt like Messi was floating on a private cloud of goodwill and admiration.

But the very best barometer, I think, was Pep Guardiola.

The Bayern Munich manager scouted this game, just as he’d taken in Atletico’s still more dramatic win over Bayer Leverkusen in Madrid the night before.

However, not the VIP seat or the presidential box for Pep. No, thanks.

The former Barcelona boss sat in the seat which pertains to his “socio” season ticket, alongside both of his parents and his great friend and confidant, Manel Estiarte, formerly a phenomenal water polo player who won Olympic gold in 1996.

Pep Guardiola was among the spectators to witness Liomel Messi’s magnificent performance.

When Wednesday’s “Messi show” was erupting with fizz and buzz in front of his very eyes, Guardiola clasped his hand over his mouth in disbelief and pushed his jumper over his face to mask his joy and astonishment.

FC Bayern’s coach — quite understandably, given his past — felt the stirrings of being a Barca fan again. Or, at least, an unabashed Messi fan.

That’s how remarkable this night was.

As far as I’m concerned I’ve been at games in which Messi has won trophies, scored dazzling goals — four or even five — and there has been infinitely more “return” for his brilliance.

But it has been a long, long time — at least a year — since I’ve seen him as devastatingly quick, confident, elusive, creative, anarchic and just plain thrilling as he was Wednesday.

Let’s just think about this. Guardiola helped the football boy become the football man of all-time and has seen hundreds and hundreds, even thousands, of hours of Messi’s best moments, both in training and in matches.

Yet even he was stunned when he watched this display. Just knocked for six. That tells you what kind of performance this was, regardless of the narrow final score and the fact that it needed Marc-Andre Ter Stegan’s penalty save from Sergio Aguero to prevent gnawing nerves for the hosts at the end.

I think, for the moment, that trying to chart precisely where Barcelona are and what they might or might not achieve this season — Claudio Bravo reckons they are talking about the treble, while Andres Iniesta said Tuesday, with gentle good humour, that “we don’t really get together for meetings and talk about what we might win” — can be set aside for a minute or two.

When football is played with this verve, technique and creative intensity, it’s just a joy.

What’s a shame is Man City didn’t really realise this — or at least, didn’t put it into practice — until it was too late again.

Their first half was pretty brusque, with too many bookings, too many fouls and not enough creative aggression.

However, when the visitors got rid of Samir Nasri, who could certainly have been sent off for kicking Neymar, and his replacement, Jesus Navas, worked his tidy little shift, City showed they could threaten Barcelona.

That said, the game also gave us one of the truly great goalkeeping performances.

Joe Hart had already gained some extra kudos and some deserved admiration for his penalty save from Messi in the first leg, which kept the Premier League champions in this tie.

Little did anyone know it was simply a precursor to a display that is extraordinarily difficult to do justice with a string of adjectives.

Messi and Joe Hart were involved in a compelling individual battle Wednesday night.

Hart was a wall, not only brave and agile but also defiant. Postmatch, he spoke of the honour it was to face Messi, who reciprocated by saying the goalkeeper was a phenomenon.

Without Punch, Judy would have no importance. Nobody would have made a film about Butch Cassidy on his own. Wednesday night had Butch AND Sundance.

The more improbable saves Hart made, the more Messi took it out on the poor City outfield players — nutmegging them, bamboozling them, prancing past them more or less at will.

My Aberdonian friend and media colleague, Jonathan Northcroft, posted a brilliant Tweet suggesting Hart will never, ever play a better game in his life, yet he was still only the second best player on the pitch at the Camp Nou. Spot on.

All these elements meant we had a spectacle. It was a reminder of why we love football so, so much.

But there’s almost always a “but.”

While England’s international keeper excelled, you could see Luis Suarez and Neymar in particular begin to hesitate in how to finish past him. Barcelona missed an unfeasibly large number of chances.

This night, following the fine first leg win in Manchester, puts them in the quarterfinals — the “super-eight,” to coin a phrase.

It has been clear for some time that Luis Enrique’s side are at least legitimate candidates to win the Champions League.

However, would Bayern allow them off the hook for such profligacy? Would a recuperated Real Madrid do that in Europe — just think of the hype around a Clasico Champions League final!

More, would Real Madrid fail to punish them for scorning umpteen clearcut chances Sunday in the league Clasico?

I think not. This was fun, thrilling and interesting, but there remains work to be done and a clinical, cutting edge to sharpen.

Graham Hunter covers Spain for ESPN FC and Sky Sports. Author of “Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World.” Twitter: @BumperGraham.