Twelve years and ten iconic battles: Messi ready for latest match-up with PSG

Any football match involving Lionel Messi is guaranteed to increase the heartbeat – as evidenced once again at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.

The Argentinian legend has helped inspire his Inter Miami side to qualify for the knockout stages after a 2-2 draw with Palmeiras ensured their progress.

Messi will now ply his mercurial talents against his former club and UEFA Champions League winners Paris St-Germain in a Round of 16 clash in Atlanta on Sunday.

Martín Fonseca/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images

The match-up is dripping in sub-plots as Messi and his ex-Barcelona team-mates Suarez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets and Miami coach Javier Mascherano take on their former boss Luis Enrique, who will be in the opposing dugout.

Legendary former Barcelona playmaker Messi certainly has a long history with Paris St-Germain.

Against no club outside of Spain has he played more in his career, with 10 meetings – and all of them in the UEFA Champions League in the colours of Barcelona.

He won four, drew three and lost three – scoring six goals and helping Barca to some famous victories along the way.

Messi’s first appearance against Paris St-Germain came during the 2012-13 season when Barca knocked them out of the Champions League at the quarter-final stage on away goals.

He scored in a 2-2 away leg in Paris and then featured in a 1-1 draw at the Nou Camp eight days later which ensured the Catalan giants progressed to the semi-finals.

In the 2014-15 season, Messi starred again as Barca played PSG four times in the Champions League – twice in group-stage games and over two matches in the quarter-finals.

Messi scored in both group-stage matches and, although he did not find the net in either leg of the 2014/15 quarter-final, he did help Barcelona to a 5-1 aggregate win.

Once again, Messi’s Barcelona side faced the French aristocrats in the Champions League two seasons later, beating them 6-5 on aggregate in one of the greatest European ties of all time.

This time it was in the Round of 16 as Barcelona made Champions League history by becoming the first team to overturn a first-leg 4-0 deficit as they knocked out Paris St-Germain to reach the quarter-finals for the 10th successive season.

The Spanish champions were 5-3 down on aggregate in the 88th minute, but scored three goals in the final seven minutes in a night of unforgettable drama.

Naturally, Messi was at the heart of it, scoring a 50th-minute penalty to make it 3-0 on the night before Barca went on to claim a famous win that will be talked about for decades.

His last two appearances against PSG came during the 2020/21 season in the last 16 of the Champions League.

Messi found the net in both matches but his Barcelona side were badly beaten by their European rivals, losing 5-1 on aggregate.

At the end of that season, he joined PSG and scored 32 goals in 75 games before crossing the pond and pitching up at Inter Miami two summers ago.

Now the greatest player of his generation, at the ripe old age of 38, gets the chance to subject his former employers to some familiar torment once again as Inter Miami bid to defy the odds and reach the Club World Cup quarter-finals. 

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