Lionel Messi dummies the ball and Griezmann walks the ball home. Messi and his “mutant fly like vision” enable Griezmann to score with ease. With a little jump over the ball, not the normal dummy of letting the ball run through your legs, Messi makes the Real Betis keeper and defenders look silly. The Messi dummy won’t go down in the stats sheets as an assist or anything but it’s a thing of beauty and why he’s the best soccer player to ever play the game.
Messi started on the bench up in the stands with a mask on to get some rest while Griezmann missed a penalty kick for Barcelona early on. So of course Messi came on and changed the game immediately.
As Andres Cordero said so perfectly on Twitter: “Messi simultaneously terrifies the Real Betis defense, pulls Bravo out of his goal, restores Barcelona’s lead and Griezmann’s confidence… without a touch on the soccer ball”.
Whether it’s Messi walking around the soccer pitch or dummying the ball without touching it, there’s just a genius in the way he plays the game and make him so unique in world football history. Messi will be profoundly missed when he leaves the game. It is moments like this dummy that will go his lengthy highlight film playing for Barcelona. It’s a shame there’s no live crowd to witness it.