Lionel Messi Gave Barcelona's 'New Cristiano Ronaldo' Important Advice In Scoring Goals

Unsurprisingly, Lionel Messi has played a huge role in Francisco Trincao’s first Barcelona goal of the season.

Trincao is one of Ronald Koeman’s senior-team debutants in Barcelona this season. But unlike his fellow Barca rookie Pedri, who quickly became Messi’s co-star, the youngster once touted to become the “next Cristiano Ronaldo” had a slow start.

However, things finally took a huge turnaround for Trincao on Sunday when Barca managed to secure a win over Real Betis.

The game was on the line with the La Liga sides tied up at 2-2 when Messi decided to make an overhead pass to Antoine Griezmann, who was heading close to the net.

The Frenchman didn’t get a good hold of Messi’s pass and the ball ended up in front of Trincao, who fearlessly shot it straight to score a crucial goal for Barcelona.

Trincao’s goal sent the Catalans to victory and though the 21-year-old was hailed hero, a report from Spanish outlet Diaro Sport revealed that the Barcelona captain himself boosted the prodigy’s confidence in taking shots moments before his heroic.

“Messi then encouraged Trincao to get rid of his fears and if he had another equal [opportunity], shoot,” the article wrote.

Despite being thrilled with his unplanned goal, Trincao admitted that he was “just doing his job” inside the pitch and just got “lucky” to be handed an opportunity to score.

“I didn’t need it, I was just doing my job, defensively and offensively, and if it’s with goals, the better,” Trincao told Movistar after the game. “I am very happy for the victory.”

“In the second half we changed our attitude and that was the important thing for the victory,” he recalled. “In the first half, both teams were afraid to take risks, in the second we risked more, and we won.”

“I work every day to help the team,” the Barcelona forward explained. “I have to try to shoot more, today I shot and I was lucky, I received a lot of encouragement and my teammates congratulated me after scoring the goal because I had been looking for this goal for a long time.”

Trincao is now finally serving his main purpose in Barcelona. It can be recalled that earlier in the season, the Portuguese revealed that Koeman has tasked him to do only one thing for the team–score goals.

“[Ronald] Koeman talks to me a lot and what he asks me most is that I be myself, that I try to score goals,” Trinca told La Vanguardia last year.