Lionel Messi joked on Wednesday about Barcelona's highs and lows this season, saying he had gone from being a "disaster" to "the best form of his career" since the New Year.
Messi played a key role as Barca advanced past Manchester City in the Champions League with a 1-0 win that sealed a 3-1 aggregate triumph.
The Catalan club advanced to the quarter-finals with a realistic chance at capturing a treble. Barca lead La Liga, play Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final on May 30 and find out their opponent for the last eight in the European Cup on Friday.
It’s a far cry from the hysteria that seemed to surround the club as 2015 began.
Despite being held scoreless, Messi is now commonly regarded to be in one of the hottest streaks of his career as Barca have won 17 of their past 18 games to put the trebel in their sights.
“I have gone from being a disaster to being in the best form of my career in a very short time,” Messi said, referring to the period surrounding a loss to Real Sociedad at the start of the year.
“I am just enjoying the moment like the rest of the team for the football we are playing and the results we are getting.”
Barca manager Luis Enrique repeated his belief that Messi is the finest player the game has seen, and urged the club’s fans not to take his brilliance for granted.
“He is the best player in the world without any doubt,” Enrique said. “Of this time and even for me in the history of the game. It is obvious and we are enchanted to have him among us.
“We have the luck to have Lionel Messi and shouldn’t take for granted having a player of his class. It is a great pleasure and joy for all Barca fans to have him.”
Messi was also in the unusual position of having to laud one of his opponents as Joe Hart produced a fine performance, albeit to no avail, for eliminated Manchester City.
Hart made 10 saves to restrict Barca to Ivan Rakitic’s solitary strike.
Messi teed up the Croatian with a skilful assist, but his quest to move ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo as the leading scorer in Champions League history was frustrated by the form of the English international goalkeeper.
“Hart is a phenomenon,” said the four-time World Player of the Year. “He saved everything today. I think we did everything to deserve a lot more, we had a lot of clear chances, but the keeper had a brilliant game.
“We can only congratulate him, but the important thing is we achieved our objective to get through.”
City manager Manuel Pellegrini said the presence of Messi gave Barca an advantage over the remaining sides in Friday’s draw for the last eight.
“Barca always have the added bonus of having Messi,” he said when asked to compare the Catalan club with competition favourites Bayern Munich, who City faced in the group stages.
The English champions played Bayern before being eliminated at the last-16 stage last season and Pellegrini said City’s tough draws over the past two seasons means their inability to reach the quarter-finals for the first time in the club’s history cannot be considered a failure.
“I don’t think it is a failure. It is disappointing,” the Chilean said. “Two years a row we have qualified for the last 16, which we didn’t in the previous years. Maybe if we had faced someone other than Barcelona we would be in the quarter-finals.”
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