Messi Magic in Semi-Finals: Inter Miami star brings mythic experience to Concacaf Champions Cup semis

The semi-finals of a tournament are not unfamiliar territory for the Vancouver Whitecaps. They've played in, and won, the semis of the last three Canadian Championships, and they even got to this stage in the 2016-17 Concacaf Champions Cup.

This week's semi-final, however, is a bit different. Inter Miami, the Whitecaps' opponent in the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup semis -- kicking off this Thursday on OneSoccer -- bring with them a certain player who has seen more semi-finals than most other players anywhere in the world.

Lionel Messi is a mythically well-decorated footballer, with over 40 trophies to his name. He has conquered knockout football at every level, having won the World Cup, the Copa América twice, the UEFA Champions League four times and seven Copas del Rey.

Before he could lift any of those trophies, however, Messi had to get to those finals. Excluding, perhaps, the 2022 World Cup, tournament finals rarely feature the most exciting or entertaining football in a competition. These one-off contests have a reputation as more cagey affairs often decided by one moment, rather than a masterclass of overwhelming brilliance for which earlier knockout games might offer more room.

Such masterclasses have, therefore, become commonplace -- almost expected -- for Messi when he plays in a semi-final, which makes the Whitecaps' task at hand all the more daunting.

In his career, Messi has played in 34 tournament semi-finals, comprising 50 total matches. His teams have advanced from 25 of them, and he's been eliminated just nine times at this stage of a competition.

More illustrative of the level to which Messi raises his game at this point: His sides have outscored opponents 99 to 55 in semi-finals, and he himself has contributed 23 goals and 19 assists.

Messi has dominated semi-finals wearing the colours of Argentina and Barcelona, and has already won one for Inter Miami -- last year's Leagues Cup triumph over Philadelphia, where he scored 20 minutes in.

Now, the Whitecaps have the challenge of beating Messi and co. over two legs. Only five times in his entire career has Messi lost a two-legged semi-final in which he played both games, and all four teams that beat him in a Champions League semi (Liverpool in 2019, Chelsea in 2012, Inter Milan in 2010 and Manchester United in 2008) went on to lift the trophy.

Liverpool are actually the only side to beat Messi in a two-legged semi-final in the last decade, and to do so they needed to win their home leg 4-0, completing one of the greatest comebacks in recent Champions League history. The first leg of that 2019 tie, of course, saw Messi score twice in the second half in his last great semi-final performance in a Barça shirt -- of which there were many. He dominated Bayern Munich with a brace at the Camp Nou in 2015; his hat-trick against Valencia meant he didn't even play in the second leg of the 2016 Copa del Rey semi; he scored twice late at the Bernabeu (including an incredible solo effort) to help see off Real Madrid in that fabled 2011 El Clasico Champions League semi-final.

For his country, he has been even more formidable. Messi has four goals and seven assists in eight semi-finals for Argentina's senior team, and he's only lost once. 

Now, for the second time in a calendar year, Canadian opposition stands between Leo Messi and a tournament final. He scored against Canada in last July's Copa América semi, en route to winning that tournament a second consecutive time.

The lone current Whitecap who played in that match is Ali Ahmed, who saw 35 minutes against Argentina. For the rest of the Vancouver team, the semi-final version of Lionel Messi will be a brand new challenge, adding another Herculean task to this already-impressive Champions Cup run.

And there's little hope for a reprieve, by the way. If the Whitecaps are to get to the Champions Cup semi-final, they'll almost certainly have to overcome 180 minutes of Messi at maximum effort. In the 50 semi-final matches the Argentine has played, across such competitions as the Champions League, World Cup, Copa del Rey and even the Olympics, he has played less than the full 90 just six times.

So, Vancouver can be pretty certain that this time, Messi will be taking the pitch at BC Place. The Whitecaps will have to do it the hard way, but they've already pulled off a few upsets on the way here. Now they've got their eyes on another.