Analysing Lionel Messi's Performance vs. AC Milan

This just in: Lionel Messi is good at kicking spherical objects through rectangular openings with netting attached.

The world's reigning Ballon d'Or winner added two more goals to his 2013 calendar year on Wednesday, spearheading FC Barcelona's 3-1 victory over AC Milan in Champions League fixture. The victory clinched Barcelona would reach the knockout round with two matches still remaining. Milan and Ajax meet once more before the knockout stage, meaning Barcelona's 10 points are enough to move on.

Overall, Barcelona turned in nothing short of a dominant performance. They took three times as many shots as Milan (19-6), held possession for 63 percent of the match and set the tone from the opening whistle. Even Milan's goal came as the result of a Barcelona player, when Gerard Pique knocked through an own goal in the 45th minute to make the score 2-1 in his team's favor. 

Barca are still yet to lose this season in any competition and have a 23-match winning streak going back to the previous campaign.

Oh, and Messi? He's pretty good too.

Coming into Wednesday's action having gone without a goal in his past three La Liga matches, Messi scored the match's first goal with a solid strike on a penalty. Christian Abbiati guessed low and left, but Messi played the oldest move in the books and struck right down the middle—as everyone who has ever played FIFA 14 online gave themselves a mental high-five.

Messi's second goal was nothing short of quintessential. Dribbling the ball just outside the box, Messi sent a swift left-footed pass to Cesc Fabregas, who one-timed it back to his superstar teammate just as he was turning on the jets. Messi took possession, ramped up his gears one last time to split the defense and netted an easy one to finalize Barcelona's scoring for the evening.

According to WhoScored's reliable grading system, Messi was by far the best player out on the pitch. Only Sergio Busquets came anywhere close, and a majority of his effectiveness came from getting the ball to—you guessed it—Messi.

"It was only a matter of matches [before he scored again] and in front of goal Lionel Messi is always a machine," Busquets told Goal.com after the match. "He has scored two [in this match] and I hope he can continue that way."

It's hard at this point to analyze any individual Messi performance. Though he was going through a slight goal-scoring drought, few on the planet through it would last much longer. Messi is too good, too skilled for him not to have an explosive performance in the interim. 

It's incredibly rare for a player to not only necessitate game-by-game dissection but also be so beyond it that it's not even funny. Goals only matter to Messi in the larger context. His two on Wednesday put him only six behind Rauli's record of 71 in Champions League play. The goals took his club to the next step, as Barcelona are trying to win their fourth Champions League title since Messi joined the senior squad.

And with Ballon d'Or talks dominating the soccer world, don't think there haven't been people telling Messi all about what his greatest rival has been up to. Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo dispatched of Messi's all-time record for goals in a Champions League calendar year, netting his 14th of 2013 in the club's 2-2 draw with Juventus on Tuesday.

Ronaldo now has eight goals during four group-stage matches. He's been good enough for every Ronaldo Truther—the ones who feel Messi has falsely been anointed as the world's best at the expense of their guy—to feel awfully happy with themselves as the calendar months wind down.

But evenings like Wednesday are as good a reminder as any to how good Messi can be. On a squad that features superstar-level talent like Neymar, Fabregas and others, the 26-year-old Argentine stands out. He's essentially the soccer equivalent of the switch between high-definition and standard definition television. One can watch and even enjoy standard def, appreciating the beyond-our-comprehension technology needed to bring moving pictures to our sets.

And then high-def comes around and you never want to go back. Messi has been far from his 1080p self of late, but Wednesday's two-goal outing should signify what's to come as he looks to push himself onward and upward on the all-time trajectory.

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