Francis Coquelin literally had to take Lionel Messi’s shirt off to stop him

Almost every method imaginable has been used to try to stop Lionel Messi.

Defenders have attempted to get touch-tight on him, only for the Barcelona talisman to nip the ball round his marker and burst into space. Opponents have tried to sit off, only for Messi to run at them and jink his way into shooting opportunities. And then you have Francis Coquelin, who broke out a novel technique in the hope of halting Messi's progress during Valencia's Copa del Rey semi-final second leg clash at home to Barca on Thursday night. The former Arsenal midfielder was quickly made aware of Messi's terrifying trickery in the first leg last week, when the Argentine "sent him back to England" with a sumptuous nutmeg. https://twitter.com/Atleti247/status/959193183648468992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sportbible.com%2Ffootball%2Ftake-a-bow-watch-lionel-messi-sent-francis-coquelin-back-to-arsenal-20180202 Coquelin felt better prepared for Messi this week, however, and tried to stop his playmaking by pulling his shirt over his head à la your old school bully. Surprisingly, not even a free kick was awarded to Barca for the attempted strip of their star player but we're not sure how frequently this example of skullduggery will work on Messi.

Los rivales quieren llevarse la camiseta de Messi como recuerdo, pero Coquelin no aguantó hasta el entretiempo. Por eso el árbitro no cobró falta...https://t.co/vEZnsh7nxg pic.twitter.com/dZg9DjwZQ5

— Maxi Friggieri (@MaxiFriggieri) February 8, 2018