When Paris Saint-Germain defended a free kick from Manchester City in injury time on Tuesday evening, Lionel Messi acted as ‘wall beam’. The scene caused great astonishment to Jan van Halst. “Look! This is not possible? How can you make Messi a wall? And he accepts it too!”, says the surprised analyst of Ziggo Sports.
“What happened in the dressing room, that the trainer thought that Messi would become a wall beam? Impossible. I don’t understand it at all,” continues Van Halst when viewing the images. He is asked by Wytse van der Goot to explain to people who are less interested in football why it is so remarkable that Messi is behind the wall. “This is God, you know, he’s better than anyone. Lying on the wall is a really humble thing. A hard-working midfielder puts you there. I was speechless.”
Bizarre images from Paris: Messi as a wall beam ?? Jan van Halst is completely off the leg ??#ZiggoSport #UCL #PARMCIA pic.twitter.com/GPiI6vThpL
— Ziggo Sport Football (@ZS_Voetbal) September 28, 2021
“I was really shocked. Also the fact that Messi did it. But it’s also nice that he does it for the team,” said Van Halst, who was happy to see Messi’s goal. “He didn’t even play that dominantly and wasn’t very present, but this was the Messi of his best Barcelona time. I think I see some relief here too. He was of course also disappointed that he has not been able to make his mark yet. “I think he’s done it now. It’s nice that it’s a real Messi goal, and that it happens in Paris instead of an away game.”
Messi combined with Kylian Mbappe along the penalty area and found the top right corner with a nice, contrarian shot. He thus determined the final score at 2-0. Just like Club Brugge, PSG has collected four points in the first two group matches. Manchester City have three, while RB Leipzig are bottom of Group A with zero points.