Planet Football has compiled a list of seven teams against which Lionel Messi has never scored or assisted.
Over the past 21 years, Lionel Messi has played a lot of games, made a lot of assists and scored a lot of goals. In fact, there are only 7 clubs that the Argentine star has faced without scoring or assisting . (Not counting matches at youth level and Barcelona B).
Udinese
Messi has faced Udinese once in his career, a Champions League group stage match in 2005 as an 18-year-old. Barca won 4-1 without him scoring or assisting as Ronaldinho scored a hat-trick and Deco added the other goal.
Toronto
In September 2023, Messi was injured in the 37th minute of an MLS match between Inter Miami and Toronto. His replacement, Robert Taylor, scored twice in a resounding 4-0 win.
Messi tried very hard but had to leave the field early due to injury.
Bordeaux
In the 2021-22 season, Paris Saint-Germain won the league by 15 points over the runners-up and scored 90 goals from the trio of Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar Jr. However, in the disciplinary match against Bordeaux in late March 2022, Neymar, Mbappe and Leandro Paredes each scored a goal in place of Messi in a 3-0 win.
D.C. United
Inter Miami entered the match against DC United with a star-studded lineup including Messi, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets in the starting lineup. However, it was not until the 94th minute that Miami got the only goal of the match thanks to Leonardo Campana after a great assist from Busquets.
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Rubin Kazan
Rubin Kazan seem to be the most difficult opponent in the Argentine star’s career as he has faced them four times without scoring or assisting a goal. Not only that, Barcelona have only won one of those four matches.
A 1–2 away defeat was followed by a 0–0 home draw in the 2009–10 Champions League group stage. The following season, Messi played as a false nine and the Blaugrana drew 1–1 away before winning 2–0 at home.
Rubin Kazan is like a curse for Messi.
Montreal
Inter Miami were 2-0 down in their MLS match against Montreal but came back to win 3-2. However, the dramatic winner was not their biggest star, Messi, but Matias Rojas, who scored the winning goal from a free kick.
UDA Gramenet
Messi was selected for the Barca first team at the age of 17 for a Copa Del Rey match against UDA Gramenet in October 2004. The Blaugrana fielded a strong line-up of Xavi, Iniesta, Henrik Larsson, Carles Puyol, Rafa Marquez, Ludovic Giuly and even brought Samuel Eto’o on from the bench. However, it was not enough and Gramenet won the match 1-0.
