Four times Messi has been shackled including by unlikely Man Utd star and manager who only refers to him as ‘the Dwarf’

ENGLAND face superstar Lionel Messi for the first time tomorrow when they take on Argentina for a place   in the World Cup final.

And boss Thomas Tuchel has the unenviable task of devising a plan to keep the great man quiet.

But history has shown that stopping Messi is not impossible – and the Three Lions must believe they can do the same in Atlanta.

Here, SunSport’s Simon Collings runs through successful missions to halt Messi, 39, in his tracks.

DON’T DIVE IN

Manchester United masterfully marshalled Messi 18 years ago on their way to winning the Champions League.

Wes Brown was an unlikely hero of the 2008 semi-final triumph over Barcelona, with United keeping clean sheets in both legs and winning 1-0 on aggregate.

Drafted into the heart of defence because Nemanja Vidic was injured, Brown’s key role was keeping Messi at bay.

Years on from two of his best performances in a United shirt, Brown can still remember Sir Alex Ferguson’s words of advice.

In a later interview with the club, Brown recalled: “Don’t dive in. I remember those words going round and round in my head.

“I’d had it drilled into me by the gaffer. Over and over again, that was the message.

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“It was a very simple tactic. People think it might be some really complex plan, but it wasn’t.

“You do realise, watching Messi, even back then, that one thing you can’t do is dive in. His ball control is unbelievable. A joke.

“My job was to stay focused and keep frustrating him. Stop him working his magic.

“As much as you’ve got a voice in your head saying, ‘Don’t dive in’, you’ve got another voice saying, ‘You can have that’.

“You can’t. It’s a trap. So you have to listen to that first voice and just stay on your feet.

“If he’s running at me and I’m running with him, as long as I’m not diving in, then someone else would come across and he would pass it.

“If he’s not got the ball, there’s no problem. Well, less of a problem anyway.

“With that Barcelona team, that meant allowing Andres Iniesta, Samuel Eto’o, Thierry Henry, Xavi or another fantastic player to have the ball.

“But it all boiled down to the fact that you just didn’t want Messi to have the ball. It’s not complicated.”

STICK HIM IN JAIL

Jose Mourinho is another manager that has had success against Messi and his solution was to put the legendary forward in “jail”.

The Portuguese coach believed that getting someone to man-mark Messi would leave them exposed and easily beaten.

It is why when Mourinho’s Inter Milan faced Barcelona in the 2010 Champions League semi-finals a special plan, which involved several players, was devised.

Argentine full-back Javier Zanetti worked with his compatriot in midfield Esteban Cambiasso, as well as Italy star Thiago Motta, to essentially squash the space afforded to Messi.

The end result was a 3-2 win for Inter on aggregate across the two legs and Messi failed to score in either game.

Mourinho later recounted: “There was a combination of ideas, but basically everything was around NOT letting Messi play.

“I remember after the game, the press was telling me about how in Italy they were using the word ‘Gharbia’.

“The real translation is about a jail. A jail for Messi, because in the end we did not play man-to-man.”

Inter playmaker Wesley Sneijder, deployed ahead of Cambiasso and Motta, even had to help out at times to box Messi in.

Mourinho added: “Messi is easy to understand, but it’s not easy to create a cage to control him, because he comes from the right, but then stays in the middle. It’s very difficult.

“When Messi has the ball, one on one, you are dead. That’s why I never liked the individual man-to-man against Messi. You have to create a cage.”

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HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED

Coming up with a tactical plan to stop Messi is one thing, but Diego Simeone believes part of the battle is psychological.

And, in an act that paints Messi out to be a bit like Harry Potter villain Lord Voldemort, the Atletico Madrid boss even refuses to utter his name.

Former Atleti defender Filipe Luis told the Charla Podcast: “Before the matches against Barca, Simeone never used Messi’s name.

“He always called him ‘the Dwarf’ – so when we were in front of him we wouldn’t be afraid of him.

“Some coaches assign one player to mark Messi, others two or three. At Atletico, Simeone assigned FOUR players to mark only him.

“And when he scored, whose fault was it? Nobody’s. We had all done our jobs well, but it was Messi.”

Fellow former Atleti full-back Kieran Trippier has similar memories of trying to stop Messi.

Simeone did not want to bog players down with tactics and instead the idea was to take the pressure off.

Trippier told Goal: “Even Simeone would say before the meetings, just basically ‘pray’.

“You just can’t do anything. You can’t organise or set up to stop him because he’s that unique.”

RULE LIKE A MAFFEO DON

Messi has seen it all, but a September night in Girona nine years ago is one of his clearest memories.

It was then, while playing for Barcelona, that he faced the “hardest defender” of his glittering career.

Pablo Maffeo man-marked him – so much so, that the ball was almost irrelevant to him.

The Girona full-back stuck to Messi like glue to stop him getting on the scoresheet.

Messi told Dazn in 2020: “Pablo Maffeo, at Girona, was the hardest defender I have ever faced.

“I’ve never been one to complain. I believe that physical contact is part of football.”

Tuchel, 52, may be tempted to get one of his defenders to do the same – but Maffeo’s story comes with a warning.

Even with Messi shackled, Barcelona still ran out 3-0 winners.