'Leo' used his flawless technique to skip past his man and also humiliate him at the same time. The Athletic Bilbao number 19 must have thought there wasn't much danger as he faced up Messi near the centre circle, but he would have been wrong.
With just a subtle touch of his boot, Messi managed to slip the ball through Merino's legs in a moment captured in detail by television cameras.
It was a fine piece of skill form the Barca star and no less than we have come to expect from a man of such talent.
The slow-motion footage can be seen below, in full detail.
March 18, 2018