Neymar lauds Messi after scoring twice off his assists
Barcelona's Neymar was full of praise for teammate Lionel Messi who made two assists to give the Brazilian a brace in a 2-0 win over Athletic Bilbao at the Camp Nou.
The Catalans made it three wins from three under new boss Luis Enrique as Neymar came off the bench to score twice.
The Brazilian had been left out of the starting line-up after his exertions in captaining his country for the first time in wins over Colombia and Ecuador in the past week, but made the difference in a tight contest when he slotted home from Lionel Messi’s pass 11 minutes from time.
And the two combined once more five minutes later as this time Messi breezed past three Athletic defenders before cutting the ball back for Neymar to side-foot home.
“Messi is the best in the world. He is a star and I am improving with him,” Neymar told Canal Plus.
“I am very happy with the game today. It went perfectly with the two goals.
“We knew we would suffer a little bit, but we managed to remain tight at the back and then went onto win the game.”
The Brazilian tweeted a photo of a big hug with his teammates.
Enrique was also quick to laud the impact made by Messi in creating both goals, as he also did for Sandro’s winner at Villarreal two weeks ago.
“It is evident that he is best in the world in any attacking aspect,” he said.
“This version of Messi helps us a lot because he is a game changer.
"He (Messi) does things in training that you can’t imagine, things I haven’t even seen on the Playstation.”
Source: AFP
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