Rio Ferdinand has said that believes the goal in which Lionel Messi scored against Manchester City meant more than just getting on the scoresheet.
Man City lost 2-0 at the Parc des Princes in the Champions League with Messi getting the second of the night, his first for the club.
In the studio and talking to Owen Hargreaves, who played alongside him at Manchester United, Ferdinand discussed the goal in which the former Barcelona player netted.
Hargreaves said: “Today was the perfect performance from this team – they played on the counter. Once they got the first goal and the space opened up for Hakimi.
Ferdinand responded: “Messi being the superstar that he is, taking the game to new levels with Cristiano, even today at times he was on the peripheral of the game.
“He wasn’t actually integral to everything like he was at Barcelona because he’s at a new club, feeling his way into it, even superstars have to do that.
“He hasn’t scored for a number of games, but then you see the celebration after that goal – that’s a relief”
Messi made his first appearance for the Ligue 1 giants at home against Lyon but received a knock to the knee and had to be substituted off.
De Bruyne booking
Earlier in the game, Kevin De Bruyne went in for a tackle and some of the pundits felt it should have been a red card.
The end result obviously meant that it didn’t matter though.
Ferdinand said: “I think when you see it in normal time and normal pace I think it’s a red card. But the guys quickly, especially Joleon being a City man told me, he got a touch or nicked it just before he carelessly jumped in.”
Joleon Lescott then said: “ It wouldn’t surprise me if he did get a red card, I don’t think it was a red card, the fact he touched it you can genuinely see he’s trying to get it away, you can’t not follow through and touch the ball and stop your foot from going forward.”
Featured image credit: Getty
