Lionel Messi will face England for the first time in his 21-year international career tonight in the World Cup semi-finals in Atlanta. The 39-year-old Argentine, who almost retired from international football in 2016 before reversing his decision, has since won the World Cup in 2022 and the Copa America in 2021 and 2024.
Messi's History Against Liverpool
Messi spent 17 seasons at Barcelona, winning 10 La Liga titles and four Champions Leagues. However, he experienced defeat against Liverpool twice. In the 2007 Champions League Round of 16, Liverpool progressed on away goals after a 2-1 win at the Nou Camp. The most famous encounter came in the 2019 semi-finals: Barcelona won the first leg 3-0, with Messi scoring a late free-kick, but Liverpool won the second leg 4-0 at Anfield in a historic comeback.
Heskey's Blueprint to Beat Argentina
Former Liverpool striker Emile Heskey believes England can follow Liverpool's lead. Speaking to 10bet, Heskey said: "The difficult thing with that is you're not at Anfield, you're not in England, and you're not in that weather. You do one run out there and you feel like you've done ten at Anfield! But yeah, there is a blueprint."
He added: "That 4-0 victory, where Liverpool managed to stop Messi too was brilliant. He would have never seen anything like that before coming to Anfield – where, one, the atmosphere is intense, and two, the players look possessed with the amount of aggressive running they are doing. So he probably had never experienced that before, but that is definitely one blueprint."
Heskey emphasised the importance of intensity: "I think if England can play with that intensity; Premier League intensity, they have the ability to run over Argentina."
Man-Marking Messi?
Regarding man-marking Messi, Heskey advised against it: "Personally, I wouldn't man-mark Messi, he’s too elusive and he’ll find a way or a moment – he has the intelligence to know when to make his runs or find a pocket of space, but I could completely understand it if the manager did decide to put someone like Declan Rice on him and ask him to do a job."
Messi's Anfield Frustration
In the home dressing room at Anfield, a fridge bears two dents allegedly left by Messi after he punched it following Barcelona's 4-0 defeat. England will hope to provoke a similar reaction in Atlanta on Wednesday night.
