At a glance
- FC Barcelona need to overturn a 2-0 disadvantage to advance past Atletico Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinals.
- Ever since his rise to fame as a teenager, Lamine Yamal is often compared to club legend Lionel Messi.
- Ahead of the second leg at the Metropolitano, fans have spotted another shared occurrence between them which could prove a good omen for Barca going all the way.
The similarities between FC Barcelona superstars Lamine Yamal and Lionel Messi are manifold.
For a start, they’re both teenage prodigies reared by La Masia. They have wands for left feet, while also donning the Blaugrana’s iconic number 10 shirt.
In the summer that Lamine Yamal became a Euros champion with Spain, there was even a photo that emerged of a young Messi “blessing” a baby Lamine in the late 2000s.
Whenever asked about Messi, Lamine is always respectful towards the Argentine. Above all, however, he stresses that he wants to carve his own path towards football greatness.
On the eve of a Champions League quarterfinal second leg against Atletico Madrid, eagle-eyed pundits and fans spotted something. It’s another coincidence that links them, while perhaps proving a good omen.
Could this coincidence prove key to Barcelona finally winning the Champions League?
Complimented for showing a wisdom far beyond his 18 years, Lamine spoke alongside his manager Hansi Flick to preview Tuesday’s tie.
But as our writer Reshad Rahman pointed out, on exactly the same day – April 13th – in 2009, Messi also held a press conference before a Champions League quarterfinal decider.
Things were quite different for his team, though. In the first season of Pep’s revolution, which had Messi as its protagonist after getting shut of bad influence Ronaldinho, Barca boasted a comfortable cushion.
With Messi scoring a brace, they’d thrashed that term’s foe Bayern Munich 4-0 in the first leg at Camp Nou. Then, after the Argentine offered a few words as a bushy-tailed 22-year-old, a 1-1 draw was more than enough to meet Chelsea for a famous and epic semifinal.
Another English opponent awaited in the final in Rome. Messi scored again to make it 2-0 against Manchester United, and added another piece of silverware to an eventual sextuplet that only one side – Flick’s Bayern in 2020 – has managed to match.
There’s a lot more to it than coincidences and de ja vu. But perhaps this is the sort of good omen Lamine and Co. need. With it, perhaps they can pull off the remontada against Atleti, and go all the way to Budapest.
