Tevez: It's very difficult to surprise an elite player, yet Messi always does it Barcelona Striker amazed by Messi's level

A few years ago, Carlos Tevez gave the perspective that top football players must face when they come up against Barcelona captain Lionel Messi.

The Boca Juniors forward explained that the 31-year-old has even managed to surprise elite footballers with his performances over the years, as he once again exhibited in the Blaugrana's 3-0 victory over Manchester United on Tuesday night.

"What I always say is that he surprises us [players] as well, and it's very difficult to surprise elite players," Tevez told Loose Animals.

"You close your eyes, then you open them, and you ask yourself, 'how did he do that?'

"This can happen to you on the pitch as well and you stay frozen looking at him.

"Sometimes I saw him going against two or three players and was running after him, because I thought that he can't manage to score a goal and that they would steal the ball from him.

"It turned out that he dribbled around all three of them."

Messi scored the opening two goals against United, with his first - a fine strike into the bottom left corner from outside the area - effectively ending the English side's chances of causing an upset with the score 2-0 on aggregate.

The No.10 then grabbed his and Barcelona's second a few minutes later, before Philippe Coutinho rounded off the scoring to make it 3-0, 4-0 on aggregate.