It’s February, and as football seasons around Europe approach their final run-ins, certain players and teams are showing their quality and determination to make the most of the final games. In addition, February also saw the return of Champions League football as the knockout rounds began.

One man who has felt the brunt of this Champions League return is our back-to-back winner of the NextGoalWinner European Player of the Month, Mr Lionel Messi. Despite the obvious European failure against a dominant PSG side, the greatest of all time has been keeping his form from January and really pressing on to prove his ability to drag those around him back to the top.

With 8 goals, 2 assists, 2 player of the match awards and averaging an 8.55/10 WhoScored? rating, these stats have pushed him ahead of the likes of Mbappe, Lewandowski and Haaland in what was the toughest decision to make with this award that I have made thus far. Admittedly it has slightly been edged by watching more of Messi than the others in full games, however those stats 100% show just a brief glimpse of how good the Argentine has been this month. Maybe next time Kylian.

Match By Match

February 3rd: Granada 3-5* Barcelona – In the months opener, Barcelona and Granada were in an 8 goal thriller that went the full 120 minutes in the Copa del Rey. What was possibly most shocking about this one, is that despite 2 hours of football, Lionel Messi wasn’t one of the scorers. Despite this, his side still got the result on what was a tough night in the middle of a packed footballing schedule. While most of the side would have preferred a bit of an earlier finish, they’ll take the win nonetheless.

February 7th: Real Betis 2-3 Barcelona – Messi made amends for his failure to score in the previous fixture, as in just his 33 minutes on the field, and mere minutes after entering the game, he bagged an equalising goal which set off another dramatic Barcelona comeback. Messi picked up the player of the match award in this one, which for a meagre half hours work, is quite remarkable. With 32 touches, he completely changed the feel of the game and dragged his side to victory.

February 10th: Sevilla 2-0 Barcelona – In their first of 2 cup disasters, Barcelona fell foul to Sevilla as they faced a bit of a hammering. Messi wasn’t able to influence this game in any way particularly, as he and his Barca side came up against Julen Lopetegui’s men. This was one of 2 games this month which admittedly nearly lost Messi the award, however he was fairly quick to rectify this just 3 days later.

February 13th: Barcelona 5-1 Deportivo Alaves – And what a way to rectify, admittedly in arguably a less important fixture, as Barcelona ran riot on a poor Alaves side. With his second and third goal of the month, along with his first assist of the month, Messi was a perfect 10/10 in this fixture. With 7 shots (5 on target) and 2 key passes, he was seemingly on an absolute tear as they kept a possible title challenge alive.

February 16th: Barcelona 1-4 PSG – This game was a disaster for Barcelona, as Mbappe ran riot inside the Nou Camp, in an almost passing of the torch moment from Messi to the Frenchman. In the game which set Barcelona with a mammoth task in the second leg, and with their 2nd cup loss in the space of a week, Messi and his side were shown up on the biggest stage. Messi himself did start the game promisingly, as he tucked away a penalty in the 27th minute to give his side the lead. However it was downhill from there, as the goals came thick and fast in the second half for PSG. With only 66 touches (a low by the Argentine’s standards), he couldn’t grab control of the game as it spiralled out of their control.

February 21st: Barcelona 1-1 Cadiz – It was another case in favour of the argument that Messi is being let down by his colleagues, as despite him giving his side a 1-0 lead in this La Liga match-up, they couldn’t hold on once again, and they conceded a late penalty to drop 2 crucial points in this title race. Messi himself was on decent form to be fair and did a solid job by anyone else’s standards, however compared to his brilliance shown on many occasions this month, it was perhaps one of the more tame Barcelona afternoons.

February 24th: Barcelona 3-0 Elche – In the penultimate fixture of the month, Messi really showed his class and skill, bagging his 6th and 7th goals of the month, and nabbed his 4th player of the match award. With his 2 shots on target he bagged both goals, and received a superb 9.11/10 rating for his work in this one.

February 27th: Sevilla 0-2 Barcelona – For the final game of the month, Messi made sure he received another player of the match award, meaning he was the top man in every La Liga game he played in the month. He took the star man commendation as a result of his goal and assist which made it 8 goals and 2nd assist for the month of February. Alongside this he made 1 key pass and maintained a pass accuracy of 90%. With only a yellow card stopping this being a perfect game for the legend, it was a great way to cap off his up-and-down month and secured him this prestigious award.