After his brace past Gianluigi Buffon last night, of all the goalkeepers Lionel Messi has come up against in his career with FC Barcelona, he's scored against pretty much all of them.
Prior to last night, Buffon had kept a clean sheet every time he came up against the five-time Ballon d'Or winner at club level and was easily the most high-profile shot-stopper to have never been beaten by Barca's record goalscorer.
Messi ticked Buffon off his list. Image: PA
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Last night, however, that duck was broken in the 3-0 Champions League win over Juventus at the Nou Camp, as Messi scored a wonderful goal in either half to get the Blaugrana off to a fine start in this year's competition.
A list of the top four goalkeepers to have faced Messi at club level and stopped him from scoring has been doing the rounds - and in all truth, you've probably never heard of three of them.
Image: PA
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Julio Cesar, best known for being Inter Milan's number one, faced Messi on two occasions and thwarted the Argentine ace in both instances.
Moving onto the lesser known players,Renan Brito Soares, formerly of Valencia and Xerez in Spain, has played against Messi on three occasions, keeping a clean sheet in every outing. Uruguay international Sebastian Vieira is also on par with the Brazilian, with the former Villarreal 'keeper denying Messi in his three games against him.
Image: PA
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And finally, the only goalkeeper to have stopped Messi from finding the net in four games against him, is Rubin Kazan's Sergei Ryzhikov. The 39-year old Russian, a two-time Russian Premier Legaue winner, has met the 30-year old in four different Champions League fixtures in 2009/10 and 2010/11 respectively, drawing twice, winning once, losing once, but seeing Messi draw a blank every time.
Can you think of any other goalkeepers that Messi has played against but never bypassed at club level?
Sound off in the comments.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: Lionel Messi
