In the BT Sport studio this afternoon there was a concentrated period of time where Gary Lineker, Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand put their heads together to think of superlatives for Lionel Messi that hadn't been uttered before.
The trio were rightly wowed by the Argentine's performance tonight as he scored two goals to send Barcelona in the quarter finals of the Champions League.
Ferdinand was particularly enamoured with the little 'magician' explaining the difference between the Argentine and his closest rival Cristiano Ronaldo:
I think him and Ronaldo are the best players, and the difference between them is that Cristiano goes out there, his mindset is 'give me the ball in the areas where I can score a goal'. He's a goalscorer. Cristiano Ronaldo is not bothered about being on the halfway line, playing at the rhythm of the game. He wants to be at the cutting knife edge of the game. Whereas Messi, sometimes you see him in the defensive midfield position, picking up the ball playing one-twos, just playing with the opposition waiting for that moment biding his time, he's involved in the rhythm of the game constantly, and that's the difference between the two players.
Ferdinand went on to say that with the size of Messi "he shouldn't be doing what he's doing" and that if you were going to build a player that one of Messi's size is not what you would aspire for. The former Man United praised the 30-year-old's element of surprise, reminding viewers that in two Champions League finals the centre back didn't lay a finger on him.
The panel ended by resorting back to the old cliche of 'we're lucky to have the two of them in the same era', but with the Argentine hitting his 100th Champions League goal tonight and Barca chug towards another La Liga triumph the plaudits are falling at the number 10's door with more regularity than his Portugese rival.
