Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr. maintain a great friendship from the years they spent together at Barcelona where they became Champions League champions and then the Brazilian made the decision to move to France to keep his career away from the Argentine. In all those years in which the faces could be seen, there have not been many clashes between the two, which also take to the competition at the national level where Leo played 11 games against Brazil and Ney played 10. However, only four of them saw the faces.
The opening of the clashes between Messi and Neymar took place in a context of total disadvantage. In December 2011, in Japan, they played in the final of the Club World Cup where Barcelona took the match against Santos by 4-0, with two goals from the Argentine. After that, everything was taken to the level of the international teams. In 2010 the first match was given with victory of Argentina by 1 to 0 with a goal of Leo in the end of game. Then came the spectacular 4-3 in New Jersey, where Messi scored three times to turn the game in his favor.
However, the following duels were all for Neymar with a particularity: the only meeting in official competitions was for the São Paulo player. In the Qualifiers for Russia 2018, Brazil won 3-0 at home and that day psg’s crack scored one of the goals, while the previous one was in a friendly in 2014, with victory 1-0 of the “canarinha”. This duel will be the sixth between both players, the second official and the first in Copa America. The 3 to 2 in Messi is favored by the only final between the two, which was also the only crossing at club level, but in selections, by magnitude and importance, Ney takes the difference despite the 2 to 2.
