Thierry Henry on former Barcelona team-mate Lionel Messi

Messi put on a masterclass against Manchester City as he nutmegged James Milner and Fernandinho, and was only denied his ninth goal of the tournament by the brilliant Joe Hart.

Messi is often described as humble when compared to Cristiano Ronaldo, but Henry feels the Argentina captain having an ego is far from 'a bad thing'.

'I'm sad for him, and upset because people doubt him sometimes,' said Sky Sports pundit Henry. 'They doubt him. How can you doubt a guy like that? 

'He put himself on a level where it's impossible for me to hear people doubting this man. What he has done we should all enjoy the guy, like we did tonight. It is a pleasure. 

'He has an ego. Of course he has an ego. Do you think you do that without having an ego? It's not a bad thing. Having an ego is not a bad thing. Knowing that you are good. You need that. 

'Let's all be honest. You need that. He just plays. If you ask him to play with you now just outside the dressing room, he will just want to have fun, perform and be the best out there.'

It was an assist from Messi that created the game's only goal against City as Ivan Rakitic was found in space to lob goalkeeper Hart in the 31st minute.

Messi's nutmegs left Milner on his backside, Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola covering his face, Gary Neville labelling it 'barbaric' and Twitter reacting to the maestro's masterclass.

Among those was Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker, who went one further than just settling the debate about who is better between Messi and Real Madrid's Ronaldo.

'Messi is indisputably the greatest player ever to don a pair of football boots,' former England striker Lineker tweeted. 'Don't even attempt to argue the point.

'A measure of Messi's greatness is that he makes world class players like [Sergio] Aguero and [Luis] Suarez look distinctly ordinary by comparison.' 

(dailymail.co.uk)