Barcelona need the best of Messi if they are to ovecome Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday, and progress to the quarter finals of the Champions League. The statistics from last year's CL campaign, with defeats to Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus, do nothing but illustrate the poor form that Messi has experienced away from home since the 2014/5 season when the Catalan side won the treble.
It has been more than a year since Leo scored a goal, or even produced an assist, away from home in the competition, the last time being at Celtic Park in November 2016. On that day, Messi bagged a brace in a 0-2 win for his side, but since then he has been incapable of performing outside of the Camp Nou.
He wasn't on the scoresheet in games against PSG and Juventus in the round of 16 and quarter finals last year, and it has been the same story vs. Sporting Lisbon, Olympiakos and Juventus (again) this season. It wasn't much better before the Celtic game either, the Argentinian forward only finding the net one other time away from home in that 16/17 seaon, a goal against Man City in a game that Barca lost 3-1.
And, going even further back in time to the 15/16 season, Messi didn't contribute in games at Roma (1-1) and Atletico Madrid (2-0) either. Two of his three CL away goals of the season came in one game, a 0-2 victory over Arsenal. The other secured a 1-1 draw for his side at Bayer Leverkeusen.
Ernesto Valverde needs Messi to break out of this form if his side are to have a chance of getting a result at Stamford Bridge.
Here are Messi's last games away from home: