Maradona, Messi and Piqué's wound
There is a clear similarity as footballers between Maradona and Messi. Both left-footed, both small, both with plenty of hair, both with the number 10 on their backs. Both brilliant. The other greats of football, a category in which I include Di Stéfano, Pelé and Cristiano, are not so similar to each other, but Maradona and Messi are have a connection that is more than just the country of their birth. And for this reason, there has been so much insistence on deciding which of them is better. This is also why so much has been made about Messi starring tonight in the church where Maradona was the Pope. I am intrigued to see how they will look at him tonight, whether as the legitimate successor or as a plagiarist impersonator.
Maradona's shadow remains over Messi
Messi can't escape the memory of Maradona and this certainly weighs on the Barça talisman. He was loved so much in Argentina that it does not go down well when historical supremacy is discussed. Hence, Messi is not the same when he turns out for the national team that is his and that he loves, but a country that does not reciprocate that. They continue to remind him that Maradona won a World Cup for Argentina. That was achieved a year before Messi was born, but it is a fact that continues to hover in the atmosphere above the country, one which does not forget those wonders. And nor do they in Naples, where the team enjoyed their happiest footballing adventures with him in it. The city is full of memories of Maradona, no matter where you go.
Messi reliance as Piqué presses on wound
This match arrives with Napoli starting to wake up from a bad start to the season. Ancelotti's weakness was shown by giving too much power to his son, the assistant coach, and the squad rebelled. Now Gattuso is in charge, the midfield battler who as a coach has shown some unexpectedly aesthetic touches. As for Barça, we already know how they come into this: relying on Messi and with Piqué pressing his finger on a wound - the distant relationship between the dressing room and the management - something he has been throwing salt on for a long time. Everything, then, is on Messi, and even more tonight where he will chase the ghost of Maradona across the old San Paolo pitch.