Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola hailed Lionel Messi after the Argentinian took a starring role in last night’s UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg win over Real Madrid.<\/p>\n
Messi scored both goals in the 2-0 victory at the Bernabeu, the second of which was a brilliant individual effort, to take his tally to an astonishing 52 in all competitions for Barca this season. It also saw him move up to third in Barca’s all-time list of record goalscorers with 179 strikes, leaving him behind only Cesar Rodriguez (235) and Ladislau Kubala (194).<\/p>\n
Speaking after the match, Guardiola said of Messi and his memorable second goal: “It’s not the first time he’s done that, he has a wonderful ability to take players on. He’s become the club’s third highest goalscorer at just 23 and at a 100-year-old club, it’s absolutely incredible. We are lucky to have him.”<\/p>\n
Guardiola did warn, however, against assuming the tie was now over following the result. “We haven’t made it to the final yet, this is the first leg match,” he said. “A team that has nine European Cups never gives up on a tie. We are two games and one draw from being European champions. We will think about the return so we can get to Wembley.<\/p>\n
“We are a step away from the final, but we will carry on respecting Madrid, very, very much. If we start to believe we are already through, Madrid can punish us. We don’t believe we are already there (Wembley). We played a very good match and I would like to congratulate the team.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/201ed65bget.media_315-150x90.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Here is the original post:
\nPep Guardiola: Barcelona Are Lucky To Have Lionel Messi<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola hailed Lionel Messi after the Argentinian took a starring role in last night’s UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg win over Real Madrid. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":403741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-403740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"yoast_head":"\n
Pep Guardiola: Barcelona Are Lucky To Have Lionel Messi - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Pep Guardiola: Barcelona Are Lucky To Have Lionel Messi - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola hailed Lionel Messi after the Argentinian took a starring role in last night's UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg win over Real Madrid.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Pep Guardiola: Barcelona Are Lucky To Have Lionel Messi\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-28T09:19:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/\"},\"wordCount\":291,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"articleSection\":[\"Local News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/\",\"name\":\"Pep Guardiola: Barcelona Are Lucky To Have Lionel Messi - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-28T09:19:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pep Guardiola: Barcelona Are Lucky To Have Lionel Messi - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Pep Guardiola: Barcelona Are Lucky To Have Lionel Messi - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola hailed Lionel Messi after the Argentinian took a starring role in last night's UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg win over Real Madrid.","twitter_creator":"@ghanamma","twitter_site":"@ghanamma","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Pep Guardiola: Barcelona Are Lucky To Have Lionel Messi","datePublished":"2011-04-28T09:19:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/"},"wordCount":291,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","articleSection":["Local News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/","name":"Pep Guardiola: Barcelona Are Lucky To Have Lionel Messi - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","datePublished":"2011-04-28T09:19:15+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/28\/pep-guardiola-barcelona-are-lucky-to-have-lionel-messi\/#primaryimage","url":"","contentUrl":""},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}