Messi is the Harry Porter of football – Vieri

 

Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi has been hailed as the Harry Potter of football by Italian legend Christian Vieri.

Messi assisted Ousmane Dembele’s deflected opener and converted a late penalty as Barcelona recorded a 2-0 win over Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Vieri, who won Serie A with Juve in 1996-97 and was a 49-time Italy international, got waxing lyrical after another Messi masterclass.

“An amazing Barcelona, there was no game. They could’ve scored six, seven goals easy. They played fantastic,” he told CBS Sports.

“Messi is a magician, he’s the Harry Potter of soccer and when he stops playing, I’m throwing my TVs away. I’m not going to work no more on TV, I’m going to watch Netflix, that’s it, because when he stops there’s nothing else to watch.”

The Argentina international helped Barca dominate as Juve – who had Merih Demiral sent off in the 85th minute – failed to record a shot on target in a Champions League home game for the first time since 2003-04 – when Opta have such data available.

Though Juventus forward Alvaro Morata incredibly had three goals ruled out for offside, Vieri was so impressed by Barcelona’s performance, saying: “It’s just another football, another game.

“I don’t know how they lost against Real Madrid, but if you see them [against Juventus] you’re going to say they can’t lose against anyone this year, it’s impossible the way they played.

“Every game is different but the Barcelona I saw and everyone saw it’s just incredible. When you’ve got a number 10 like that, it’s just crazy.

“It’s a pity there are no fans here because the fans should be seeing a team like this.”

Messi will be looking to weave his magic as Barca, sitting 12th in La Liga, travel to Deportivo Alaves on Saturday.