Lionel MESSI-ah is the real deal and this is what people are saying about him today!

LIONEL MESSI enhanced his status as the best footballer of his generation with another record-setting performance for Barcelona last night in the UEFA Champions League.

Barcelona progressed to the quarter-finals of the Champions League with a 7-1 rout of German side Bayer Leverkusen. But that is not what captured the headlines.

Lionel Messi - is he the greatest footballer of all-time?

Barca superstar Lionel Messi turned in a truly historic performance as he became the first player to score five goals in a UEFA Champions League match, as Barcelona thumped Leverkusen at Camp Nou, sealing a 10-2 aggregate win in the last 16 match.

The last player to score five in European football's top club competition was Soren Lerby of Ajax against Omonia in 1979.

Messi has been nothing short of sensational this season, scoring 48 goals in all competitions, including an incredible seven hat-tricks.

Against Leverkusen Messi was unstoppable, scoring twice in the first half and three times after the break to move to 49 Champions League competition goals - joint fourth on the all-time European Cup list alongside Alfredo di Stefano. He is one goal behind Thierry Henry in third place on the all-time list.

With 12 Champions League goals in seven appearances this season, the 24 year-old Argentine forward equalled the Champions League goal record for a single season, held by former Manchester United and Real Madrid striker Ruud van Nistelrooy in 2002-03, and Messi himself, who also scored 12 goals last season.

Here are some post-match quotes following his five star performance last night:

Pep Guardiola, Barcelona coach:
"He's the best [ever] - there is no other like him. Tonight we witnessed one of [Lionel] Messi’s most special nights; watching it was like receiving a gift."

Xavi, Barcelona midfielder:
"He deserves the admiration of any sportsman. He is incomparable, a one-off. There is no other player who can make such a difference — he’ll break all the records."

Cesc Fabregas, Barcelona midfielder:
"He is the best player in football's history and we've never seen anyone like him."

Victor Valdes, Barcelona goalkeeper:
"At the end of the game I had to ask him if he had scored four or five goals."

Robin Dutt, Bayer Leverkusen Coach:
"Without Messi, Barca is the best team. And with him, they are in another galaxy."

Rudi Voller, Bayer Leverkusen sporting director:
"It is not just about his five goals today, he has been showing this already for years," Voller told SAT.1. "He is now in a region with Pele and Maradona."

Eric Cantona:
"I have always thought that Barca’s play was incredible but Messi is exceptional."

Eurosport:
"To describe Lionel Messi as a good player, a great player, is a statement so facile as to render it pointless. Such is the utter brilliance of the Barcelona forward, we are not just running out of superlatives, as the old cliché has it, we are running out of ways to say we are running out of superlatives. He is a man for which conventional language is no longer sufficient."

Messi's seven hat-tricks for Barcelona this season have been against:
Osasuna, Atletico Madrid, Real Mallorca, Viktoria Plzen, Malaga, Valencia (4 goals) and Bayern Leverkusen(5 goals).

The million dollar question everybody in the world of football is debating as we speak is whether or not Messi is the greatest football player of all-time?

The simplest and fairest solution is this: Accept that, for each era, there is a footballer who towers above the rest. Pele, Maradona, Zidane and now, unquestionably, Messi.

But we don't need to compare Messi against those other players to understand a blindingly simple truth: The way he plays football, his humble and inventive genius, is an absolute delight to behold.

How lucky we are to live in his time!

Forlan fires Uruguay to 2011 Copa América triumph.

Uruguay celebrate after winning the 2011 Copa América today

Uruguay defeated Paraguay 3-0 in the Copa América final at the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires, to win South America’s continental soccer championship for a record 15th time.

Luis Suárez opened the scoring in the game’s 12th minute and Diego Forlán (right) made it 2-0 late in the first half. Forlán added his second and Uruguay's third goal in the game’s final minutes, to secure Uruguay’s first title since winning on home soil in 1995.

The victory lifts Uruguay, who reached the semi-finals at last year’s World Cup, one championship clear of arch rival Argentina in the 43 tournaments of soccer’s oldest international tournament.

Uruguay's squad featured 20 of the 23 players it took to the World Cup a year ago, and they won the tournament with a combination of good teamwork, a solid defence, along with a burning hunger and desire - despite not having the vast pool of 'star' players available to them, compared to the likes of Argentina or Brazil.
Uruguay eliminated the host nation and pre-tournament favourites in the quarter-finals.

Paraguay, the 1953 and 1979 champions, had been seeking its third title after advancing to the final without having won a single game. The Paraguayans drew all three group games and needed penalty kicks to get past Brazil and Venezuela in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively.

Today’s win also earned La Celeste, as Uruguay’s team is known, a berth at the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil.

Of the region's top four teams in the FIFA world rankings, only Uruguay (ranked world number 18 by FIFA) made the semi-finals of this years 12-nation event, following up its fourth-place finish in South Africa last year.

Uruguay was the clear favorite going into the final, wrapping up a tournament filled with surprises.

Uruguay beat Argentina 5-4 in a quarter-final penalty shootout, while Brazil's bid to win the tournament for the fifth time in the past six occasions ended when lost 2-0 on penalties to Paraguay, missing all four of their spot-kicks in the process!

Not only had Brazil and Argentina been sent home early, but Venezuela reached the third-place match on Saturday before losing 4-1 to Peru.
Those two countries have been the weakest in the region in recent years, but they suddenly look formidable going into the regional World Cup qualifying matches starting later this year.

It was only the second time in the tournament’s 95-year history that neither Brazil nor Argentina made the semi-finals of a tournament in which at least one of them took part.

Uruguay could have even have taken the lead as early as the second minute, when 'keeper Justo Villar superbly kept out Fenerbahçe defender Diego Lugano's powerful point-blank header.

Luis Suárez (right) did give Uruguay the lead ten minutes later, in a match they dominated from start to finish. Receiving a pass in the area, the Liverpool forward beat defender Dario Veron to score with a deflected left-footed shot that went in off the far post.

Atlético Madrid's Forlán, who was voted the best player at last year's World Cup in South Africa, made it 2-0 just before half-time, lashing home an angled drive following a pass from Egidio Arevalo Rios.

Sebastian Eguren almost made it 3-0 in the 74th minute, but Villar saved well.
Forlán notched the final goal in the last minute. Cavani swept a cross-field pass to Suárez, whose cushioned header found Forlán and he calmly rolled the ball into the corner of the net, past the advancing Villar to register his 31st international goal.

Paraguay seldom threatened the Uruguayan goal, and badly missed their injured duo of striker Roque Santa Cruz and winger Aureliano Torres. In addition Paraguay Coach Gerardo Martino and assistant Jorge Pautasso were suspended from the match after being sent off for repeatedly arguing with the referee in Wednesday's victory over Venezuela.

"The important thing was getting started well, with two goals in the first half, I think it was very difficult for them to come back," said Suárez after the match.

"We played as a group,I think when groups are united like this, everyone together and going for the same thing, you can get things done," added Suárez, who was both the competition's joint top-scorer, and voted the 'best player of the tournament.'

Lineups:

Uruguay: Fernando Muslera, Maximiliano Pereira, Diego Lugano, Sebastian Coates, Martin Caceres (Diego Godin, 88), Alvaro Gonzalez, Diego Perez (Sebastian Eguren, 69), Egidio Arevalo Rios, Alvaro Pereira (Edinson Cavani, 63), Diego Forlan, Luis Suarez.

Paraguay: Justo Villar, Ivan Piris, Dario Veron, Paulo Da Silva, Elvis Marecos, Nestor Ortigoza, Cristian Riveros, Victor Careces (Hernan Perez, 64), Enrique Vera (Marcelo Estigarribia, 64), Nelson Haedo Valdez, Pablo Zeballos (Lucas Barrios, 76).

Goals: Luis Suárez 12', Diego Forlán 42', Diego Forlán 89'

Argentina set for more World Cup glory - World Cup Betting News with Betfred

VERSUS

You can be sure there will be a huge flood of support across England for Argentina on Saturday as they pray that Diego Maradona's side thrash Germany.

After the Germans swept past England in the last round, fans across the country will be keeping their fingers crossed that Lionel Messi and co. can stop the old enemy from progressing any further. Argentina are priced at World Cup odds of 11/8 to win their quarter-final clash in 90 minutes on Saturday in Cape Town.

One man determined to step up and smack in some goals against the Germans is Carlos Tevez, a striker revered in England for his full-blooded displays in the Premier League for West Ham, and for both of the red and blue halves of Manchester.

The City striker scored two goals, one controversial and one sensational, in the last round and is likely to line-up with Messi and Gonzalo Higuain in an attacking Argentinean line-up.

The form that Tevez and Higuain have shown so far mean they sit at 11/4 and 14/1 respectively to win the World Cup Golden Boot and the 26-year-old Manchester City striker has said that he will "give everything" on Saturday in Cape Town to help his side progress.

"Why not think I can be a champion? Every night, I do," Tevez went on to tell the Clarin Media Group, publishers of the largest newspaper in Argentina.
"I have a hunger for glory so great that I cannot imagine the great sadness there would be without the cup. I could not bear to lose on Saturday."

Tevez certainly sounds like a man who is going to give everything to succeed at the weekend and is 11/2 to score the first goal with Betfred.

However, Messi has done everything but score at the World Cup so far and 4/1 that his luck changes and he scores first could be seen as a good World Cup bet by many football fans.

My Tip Of The Weekend:

I expect it to be a very close game. Four years ago a quarter-final between them went to penalties - and there is every likelihood of it going to extra time this year, so I'm backing Argentina to win over 120 minutes at 8/1.

World Cup 2010 Quarter-Final: Argentina v Germany - Saturday 3rd July, kick-off 3pm GMT

By Drew Swainston
(Guest writer from Betfred on behalf of Beer Footy and Birds!)

The Latest World Cup News

Italy coach Marcello Lippi has dropped Juventus defender Fabio Grosso and Udinese midfielder Antonio Candreva from his World Cup squad ahead of a training camp this weekend and two warm up matches.
Grosso, 32 was a pivotal player for Italy in their World Cup success four years ago, while Candreva who made his international debut last November also misses out, after failing to shine in a poor Juventus side - ESPN Soccernet

Marcell Jansen remains on course to shake off a foot injury in time to make Germany's World Cup squad.
The Hamburg defender has been named in Joachim Low's 27-man preliminary party and is making is making encouraging progress, despite having been sidelined with the problem since March - Skysports.com

The Ghana Football Association says German midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng has been cleared to play for them.
This means the 23-year-old Portsmouth midfielder will be available to line up for the Black Stars at this summer's World Cup in South Africa.
Boateng was named in Black Stars coach Milovan Rajevac's 30-man squad for the finals despite the delay in his application to switch nationality - BBC Sport

Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk has trimmed his provisional World Cup squad from 30 to 27 players.
PSV Eindhoven forward Otman Bakkal and midfielders Wout Brama (FC Twente) and David Mendes Da Silva (AZ Alkmaar) were all omitted.
Earlier in the week, van Marwijk omitted former Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy from his 30-man squad admitting he had doubts over his injuries - BBC Sport

Argentina coach Diego Maradona named a 23-man squad on Wednesday ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, dropping seven players from the provisional list named last week.
The seven men cut from the provisional squad are Newcastle defender Fabricio Coloccini, Newell's Old Boys defender Juan Manuel Insaurralde, Jose Sosa of Estudiantes, Olympiakos midfielder Jesus Datolo, Napoli forward Ezequiel Lavezzi, Lanus' Sebastian Blanco and Juan Mercier of Argentinos Juniors - Fifa.com

Brazil midfielder Kaka claims that he will be ready for the start of the World Cup, having struggled with form and fitness throughout the season for Real Madrid.
Kaka endured a groin problem and a thigh injury through parts of the season and he was the subject of criticism for the length of time it took him to get over the injuries, but now maintains he will be in peak condition for the World Cup - ESPN Soccernet

Gordon Banks believes David James should start in goal for England this summer, even though he has not been the most consistent performer in that position. The goalkeeper for England's World Cup-winning side of 1966 said that while Joe Hart had enjoyed the most impressive season and Robert Green had played well in a struggling side, experience would be a vital asset in South Africa - The Guardian

Danish goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen is confident about winning his fitness race for the World Cup.
The Stoke City shot-stopper thought he had blown his chances of featuring in South Africa after dislocating his elbow in the Premier League loss at Chelsea on 25th April.
But the Dane is now 'very optimistic' he will be ready for his country's opening Group E match against Holland on 14th June - Skysports.com

The Greatest Football Team Of All-Time

With the 2010 World Cup only 58 days away I thought it time to wet the appetite of all football fans, right across the globe, by selecting MY OWN personal 'Greatest Football Team Of All-Time.'

Now football is without doubt a game of opinions, and you may consider the players I have selected as not worthy of their place in my greatest team, or feel I have missed out players who you would deem as more laudable of selection, which I fully appreciate.

This was not as tricky an exercise as I had initially thought, as so few players are the cream in all the fundamental categories deemed in my selection process.

The criteria for which I based my miscellany on was as follows:

* No pre-war players (footballer was a cruder game back then & the competition was less fierce)
* Great technical ability
* Sustained excellence over a number of years
* An ability to inspire others
* Fervour for battle

There are 12 Europeans and 4 South Americans, and they all satisfy the criteria in abundance.

Four of them played in the 1950's, seven started in the 1960's, two in the 1970's, two in the 1980's and one in the 1990's.

No one country is represented by more than two players.

Goalkeeper:

Lev Yashin - 1954-70 (USSR)

Defenders:

Paulo Maldini - 1988-02 (Italy)
Franz Beckenbauer - 1965-77 (West Germany)
Bobby Moore - 1962-73 (England)
Carlos Alberto Torres - 1964-77 (Brazil)

Midfield:

Alfedo Di Stefano - 1947 (Argentina) , 1957-61 (Spain)
Michel Platini - 1976-87 (France)
Johan Cruyff - 1966-78 (Netherlands)
George Best - 1964-77 (Northern Ireland)

Forwards:

Pelé - 1957-71 (Brazil)
Ferenc Puskás - 1945-56 (Hungary) , 1961-62 (Spain)


Subsitutes:

Goalkeeper:
Gordon Banks - 1963-72 (England)

Defender:
Franco Baresi - 1982-94 (Italy)

Midfield:
Zinedine Zidane - 1994-06 (France)
Forwards:
Diego Maradonna - 1977-94 (Argentina)

Eusebio - 1961-73 (Portugal)

If you feel you would like to agree or disagree with any of the players I have chosen in my 'Greatest football team of all-time,' or you would like to suggest a player who you feel should be included, then please do not hesitate to post any comments below.
All feedback is received with interest and thanks.

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