Real Madrid WEREN'T the best team in Champions League, says Messi

Real Madrid WEREN’T the best team in the Champions League this season despite winning their 14th crown, insists Lionel Messi… as PSG star opens up on struggling to adapt after ‘tough change’ of leaving Barcelona

  • Real Madrid won the Champions League on Saturday after beating Liverpool 
  • Their campaign had included a dramatic turnaround against PSG in the last 16 
  • But Lionel Messi is still not convinced Los Blancos were the best side this term 
  • Messi says he did not want to leave the ‘complete happiness’ of Barcelona

Lionel Messi believes Real Madrid were not the best team in the Champions League this season and hinted his PSG side were the better side in their round of 16 clash.

Los Blancos won their 14th European crown after Vinicius Junior scored the only goal in Saturday night’s final against Liverpool in Paris.

It was the culmination of a campaign that had seen Carlo Ancelotti’s men defeat the likes of the Reds’ Premier League rivals Manchester City and Chelsea on their way to the final at the Stade de France.

Lionel Messi believes Real Madrid were not the best team in the Champions League this season

Los Blancos won their 14th European crown after beating Liverpool in Saturday night’s final

But arguably the greatest drama in their route to the final came in the last-16 tie against PSG, when Karim Benzema’s stunning 17-minute hat-trick turned the second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid’s favour.

It signalled another season of failure for the French champions in the competition, but speaking to Argentinian broadcaster TYC, 34-year-old star Messi still insists Madrid were not the best side to have played in it this season.

‘The Real Madrid game killed us. The best team doesn’t always win,’ Messi said.

‘Without taking anything away from Madrid, because they are the champions of Europe and they’re always there or thereabouts, but they weren’t the best team of this Champions League.

Their campaign included the dramatic Karim Benzema-inspired turnaround against PSG

‘The Champions League is about situations, key moments, psychological moments that take a team, where the slightest error can eliminate you and the those who are best prepared for those situations end up winning or reaching the final.’

It was just one of a number of disappointments for the Argentina international this season, having scored just six goals in Ligue 1 in 2021-22 following his move from Barcelona.

Messi was expected to re-sign with Barcelona following positive initial talks between all parties last summer, but LaLiga’s financial regulations prevented a deal from happening.

The 34-year-old scored just six goals in Ligue 1 in 2021-22 following his move from Barcelona

And Messi has revealed he has struggled with adapting to life in France, admitting he did not want to leave the ‘complete happiness’ of playing at the Catalan giants.

‘It was a summer of complete happiness and one where I thought everything would stay the same at Barcelona and in my life and then what happened happened and it was tough,’ he added.

‘It was a tough change, a difficult year. The adaptation wasn’t easy. After a lifetime in the same place, it’s not easy at my age.

‘It’s one thing to do it when you’re younger and you want to, but at the time I didn’t want to and I didn’t imagine or expect it.’

Messi did not want to leave the ‘complete happiness’ of playing at the Catalan giants

Another low point in his first season in France was when he and Neymar were targeted by boos by some sections of the PSG fanbase during a match against Bordeaux in March following their Champions League elimination.

Messi insists he understood the fans’ frustration but was unhappy that his family had to witness his own supporters whistling him. 

‘It’s also new for me. It’s a different situation. It had never happened to me in Barcelona, ​​quite the opposite,’ he said.

‘The anger is understandable. Then if I agree or not about the whistles to me and to Ney in particular, that we were the most marked. But well, it happened.’ 

‘I did not like that my family was there and that they heard people whistling at me, and that my children were there.’

Messi and Neymar were targeted by boos by some sections of the PSG fanbase in March




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