Lionel Messi has been a Paris Saint-Germain F.C player for eight good months now and we can already classify some highs and quite a number of lows for the Argentina legend.
Soccer superstar Lionel Messi stunned the entire sport last season, when La Liga rules made it impossible for Barca to renew the player’s contract and as such Messi was forced to move to PSG on a Bosman transfer.
how far is the forward doing at his new club
Lionel Messi made his PSG debut as a second-half substitute against Stade de Reims F.C on August 29, 2021, and it was a quiet beginning as his new team eased to a 2-0 win.
The 34-year-old Messi, was then handed his first PSG start in the Champions League trip to Club Brugge KV on September 15, his side suffering frustration in a disappointing 1-1 draw where he did not score.
Messi struggled in his opening weeks as a PSG player and it took almost a month after his debut for him to score his first goal for the club.
The superstar finally came to life on the biggest of stages when he played a vital role in beating Manchester City and his former coach Pep Guardiola in the Champions League, with a superb strike in a 2-0 victory.
Lionel suffered his first defeat as PSG player in the 2:0 defeat to Rennes before shining again in the UEFA Champions League with two goals in a hard-fought and dramatic 3:2 victory over Leipzig in the Champions League.
Lionel Messi experienced his first taste of Le Classique when PSG travelled to play rivals Olympique de Marseille but was still unable to score his first Ligue 1 goal of the season as the game finished 0:0.
It took until November 20 for Messi to finally claim his all-important first goal in Ligue 1 for Paris Saint-Germain F.C. with a tremendous strike late on in a 3:1 home victory over Nantes.
The return match against the england side Manchester City in the Champions League group did not go well for the Argentine superstar as PSG fell to a 2:1 defeat. The club did qualify for the last 16, though, albeit as runners-up.
Messi bounced back immediately when domestic action returned with a trip to Saint Etienne the following Sunday. Messi gave three assists in a 3:1 victory, setting up all of PSG’s goals. He had not previously registered an assist in Ligue 1.
It was just the third time Messi has assisted three goals in a single league game in his club career. He had previously done so just twice with Barcelona (versus Getafe in 2012 and against Real Betis in 2020).
Messi took his tally in the Champions League to 5 goals in the group stages with a double in PSG’s 4-1 win over Club Brugge. This included a superb long-range shot. The Parisians were subsequently drawn against the Spanish side Real Madrid in the last-16.
Messi’s final four Ligue 1 matches of 2021 were rather quite disappointing with no goals and just one assist as PSG managed only one league win in December.
This ended a rather underwhelming first-half to the season at PSG with Messi, certainly domestically. Five of Lionel Messi’s six PSG goals in 2021 came in the UEFA Champions League, with just one in Ligue 1, though all four of his assists arrived in domestic competition.
Messi missed the start of 2022 after contracting COVID19 during the winter break. He missed the matches against Vannes in the Coupe de France and versus Lyon and Brest in Ligue 1.
He made his first appearance of the year on January 23,2022 as a 64th minute substitute in the big win over Stade de Reims.
His long run without a goal continued in the Coupe de France as he and his PSG colleagues were knocked out after a penalty shootout following 0:0 draw against Nice. Messi did, at least, score his penalty.
Messi finally scored his first goal of 2022 on February 6 during the 5:1 victory at Lille. He also assisted Prisnel Kimpembe’s goal.
The little magician then struck again in PSG’s next league game, when he set up Kylia Mbappe to bag a last-minute winner against Stade Rennes.
Messi couldn’t keep up that good run of form in the Champions League, when he missed a penalty and was relatively quiet despite his side beating Real Madrid 1:0.
The following weekend, PSG endured something of a hangover as they were defeated 3:1 by Nantes, yet Messi made it three Ligue 1 matches in succession in which he claimed an assist by setting up Neymar for his side’s consolation goal.
Most recently, the Argentine superstar recorded another two assists in PSG’s 3:1 comeback victory against Saint Etienne.
His run of assists was ended in a 1-0 defeat to Nice, in which he did not have Kylian Mbappe to combine with. It was the third match in succession against that opponent that PSG had failed to score against.
The biggest disappointment of the season for Messi and his teammates arrived on March 9 as they were eliminated from the Champions League. Despite being 2:0 up on aggregate after Kylian Mbappe’s second goal in the tie in Madrid, PSG crumbled in the last half-hour to lose 3:1 on the night and 3:2 on aggregate.
Lionel Messi was subsequently booed throughout his next game as PSG fans took out their frustration of this exit on both the Argentine (Messi) and Brazilian (Neymar). PSG won the game 3:0 against Bordeaux but Messi again didn’t score.
This page will be regularly updated to showcase Messi’s individual club statistics for PSG throughout the season after his big transfer.
Lionel Messi: 2021-22 stats
Appearances: 25
Starts: 23
Goals: 7
Assists: 10
Messi: Matches played
Stade de Reims 0:2 Paris Saint-Germain F.C, August 29 – Ligue 1
Minutes played: 24
Goals: 0
Assists: 0
PSG 4:0 Clermont Foot, September 11 – Ligue 1
Minutes played: 0
Goals: 0
Assists: 0
Club Brugge 1:1 PSG, September 15 – Champions League
Minutes played: 90
Goals: 0
Assists: 0
PSG 2-1 Lyon, September 19 – Ligue 1
Minutes played: 76
Goals: 0
Assists: 0
Freekick hits the post ❌
Someone else takes the penalty 😪
Subbed off for a right-back 🙃
Messi at PSG?🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/H7o7K3RxXw
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) September 19, 2021
