In 2011, the 23-year-old Messi was at the peak of his speed and agility.

  Since his debut, no defender had ever been able to contain him one-on-one.

  Yet surprisingly, that Chinese player had managed to keep up with him earlier.

  But now, he was facing Boujellab.

  The moment Messi received the ball—

  Seeing Boujellab aggressively stepping up to challenge—

  Messi didn't waste a single motion.

  A slight dip of his right shoulder, then an explosive acceleration from a standing start.

  Boujellab stretched out his left leg to intercept, but to his horror, even with Messi right in front of him—

  He could only watch helplessly as Messi blew past him like a gust of wind!

  It was too fast. So fast that his legs simply couldn't match Messi's speed!

  "Messi's breaking down the flank!"

  "He breezes past Boujellab with ease!"

  "Incredible acceleration!!!"

  "Smits steps up to challenge!"

  "Peer Kluge comes across from midfield to help defend!"

  Facing the double team, Messi shifts his body sideways and slightly reduces his pace.

  The hesitation move causes the charging Peer Kluge to slow as well.

  But in that split second when Kluge eases off—

  Messi explodes forward again!

  A subtle push of the ball with his left foot toward the center—

  Followed by a sharp cut inside!

  Before Smits could react, Messi had already vanished from his sight!

  And now—

  Messi keeps driving forward with the ball!

  Villa makes a central run while Pedro surges up the left.

  Xavi and Iniesta both rush into the box.

  But!

  At this moment, Messi has no teammates ahead of him.

  "Messi!!!"

  "He's beaten three defenders!"

  "Still going!"

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  "Metzelder charges out to meet him at the edge of the box!"

  "He drops his center of gravity, bracing to lock down Messi!"

  "Villa makes a diagonal run behind Metzelder!"

  "This could be dangerous!"

  "Messi lifts his left leg!"

  "Is he passing?"

  "No! Messi keeps going!"

  "He changes direction again!"

  "He's breaking through!"

  "Metzelder steps up to challenge!"

  Facing Metzelder's advance, Messi whipped his left foot in a sharp cross!

  The ball flicked toward the goal as his entire body followed through violently into Schalke's penalty area!

  At this point, Metzelder had no way to stop Messi.

  By the time he turned, Messi had already accelerated past him.

  After bypassing Metzelder, with Neuer having lost sight of his defenders, the keeper charged at Messi.

  But all he met was Messi's perfectly weighted chip!

  The ball sailed over Neuer's head and gently dropped into the center of the net!

  A breathtaking solo goal!

  "Magnificent!!!"

  "Goal!"

  "Messi!!!"

  "An ingenious chip after dribbling past four defenders!"

  "Neuer is beaten again!"

  "This is pure individual brilliance!"

  "Schalke's fragile defense posed no threat to Messi whatsoever!"

  "2-1!"

  "Bar?a retakes the lead!!!"

  "This is Messi!"

  "The ever-reliable Messi!"

  Even Duan, a diehard Su fan, couldn't help but marvel at Messi's masterclass.

  Beside him, Wang could only shake his head helplessly.

  Neuer knelt on the turf, staring despairingly at the ball in his net.

  Messi ran past him, wagging his finger triumphantly.

  Smits came over to help Neuer up.

  The rest of Bar?a's squad celebrated wildly, swarming around Messi.

  "Absolute dominance!"

  "Messi didn't keep Bar?a fans waiting long!"

  "Their trailing position lasted just thirty-one minutes!"

  "Now all the pressure shifts to Schalke!"

  "The away goals are equalized and Bar?a's onslaught continues!"

  -Messi is on another level! This is completely different from Schalke's play!

  -[Not just Schalke's four defenders - even Real Madrid's backline might struggle! His dribbling defies logic! No fancy tricks, just pure acceleration. You know he's going right but still can't stop him!

  [Su needs another miracle run to equalize!]

  -Brother, that first goal was just catching Bar?a off guard. Now Busquets is covering Su's position, with Iniesta and Xavi flanking him! With this defensive attention, do you really think Su is invincible?

  -"Hey! Can't we just accept defeat? What's the point of watching if we're going to lose?"

  -"Come on, winning and losing is normal in football. You can't win all the time. Su is still young. Besides, for Schalke to compete with Bar?a like this is already impressive. Do you think this is still the 80s or 90s where one superstar could carry a team to victory?"

  -"Guardiola has figured Su out. He's completely ignoring our other players and focusing only on Su! When they abandon all other markers just to contain Su, what can you do? Our other players can't beat Bar?a's defenders one-on-one. They're concentrating their best defenders on Su, making Magath's free-man tactic useless!"

  -"At the end of the day, it's about squad strength and bench depth. If we were playing Real Madrid like this and they focused on Su, Cristiano Ronaldo would tear them apart!"

  -"This kind of tactic is basically bullying - taking advantage of our lack of star players!"

  -"Who says we don't have stars? What about Raul on the bench?"

  -"Brother, he's thirty-three! You think he's still in his twenties? Even in his prime, could he single-handedly defeat Bar?a?"

  On the sidelines, Magath remained seated on the bench.

  He glanced sideways at Guardiola, who was celebrating with both fists raised triumphantly.

  The right flank was leaking badly - Nicolas Plestan couldn't handle Pedro at all, even with Hao constantly providing support.

  And the left side?

  Facing Messi!

  Bar?a's celebrations soon ended.

  The match resumed.

  Schalke's attack!

  Same story as before!

  The moment Su received the ball, he was immediately surrounded by at least three players.

  Xavi and Iniesta closed in on him like a pincer movement.

  Even when he retreated wide, these two maintained their marking distance. And it wasn't just them - Pedro on the left and Messi on the right were also ready to close him down at any moment!

  With no room to hold up play or attack, Su had no choice but to pass to Boujellab and let him organize.

  But Boujellab, who had only learned to play off Su, suddenly found himself as the main playmaker - and he clearly wasn't comfortable in this role!

  He simply couldn't connect with Schalke's forwards.

  Schalke's attack lasted less than two minutes before Busquets intercepted the ball from Boujellab with a well-timed tackle.

  And just like that, Bar?a launched another siege!

  ...............