Why Messi still has a point to prove

SO how do you solve a problem like Messi? Happily for the rest of us, that’s one for Alex Ferguson to puzzle out tonight. Banning him is out of the question, I suppose, so that removes one of the manager’s favourite tactics for handling tricky customers.

How about a super injunction, then? “Our client, Mr X, dribbled the ball around seven opponents, flicked it over the head of the goalkeeper, ran around him, caught the ball as it dropped on his instep and then turned around to backheel it over the line and complete his hat-trick”.

So, that’d be Carles Puyol then. Obviously.