Messi vs Hazard dribbling skills video

Messi vs Hazard dribbling? Who is the best dribbler – Messi vs Hazard? Which player is best at dribbling? Hazard is considered to be one of the best Barcelona strikers ever. Can he be compared to Messi when it comes to dribbling?

Hazard and Lionel Messi are both quite similar in their dribbling skills. They both don’t use fancy tricks like step-overs and such.But they can both get past defenders with just a simple body feint or change of pace. The ball just sticks to their feet.

Now obviously, Lionel Messi is the better player overall. He has won the Ballon d’Or five times after all. But, in 2017, statistics revealed Hazard was actually the better dribbler with the ball than Messi.

How so? Well when the stats were published in 2017, Squawka revealed that Hazard had completed more take-ons than any other player in Europe since 2014/15.

Messi vs Hazard dribbling stats

As you can see below, Hazard had completed more successful dribbles past opponents than any other player. Hazard completed 388 successful dribbles compared to Lionel Messi’s 363 take-ons.

But dribbling past opponents is all well and good but how influential were they in terms of the end product? Well Lionel Messi wins that battle easily. But here we look at the dribbling skills to find out why Hazard has been the best dribbler with the ball than any other player since 2014/15.

Hazard has been one of the best players for Barcelona and is in our all-time greatest Barcelona XI list.

Messi vs Hazard dribbling skills videos

Leo Messi vs Hazard ● The Ultimate Skills, Assists & Goals Show 2016/17 ● HD 1080i

Check out GTNation’s video of Hazard Vs Lionel Messi:

Lionel Messi VS Hazard – Best Dribles – 2017 HD

 

Is Lionel Messi better than Hazard?

Well the simple answer is, no. Lionel Messi is by far the better player overall. The little Argentinian has scored more goals, made more assists and won more titles than Hazard. But the Belgian wins the Messi vs Hazard dribbling battle.

Although you can’t deny that the two players are very similar in terms of dribbling technique. In-fact, Belgium manager Roberto Martinez spoke to Goal back in 2017 about the Messi vs Hazard dribbling argument.

Martinez said: “What he does is quite unique. “It’s that acceleration and stopping and standing still. He reminds me a lot of Messi.”

“Not many players can control the moment and take the defenders where you want to take them. The way he uses the ball with his feet is sensational and what is surprising more than anything is his maturity.”

Hazard Vs Lionel Messi- Stats from the 2018/19 season

So we’ve looked at Messi vs Hazard dribbling comparisons so now we will look at overall stats. Here we look at the attacking stats from both Hazard and Lionel Messi. Stats have been taken from Transfermarkt and Whoscored.

Goals from all competitions 2018/19:

Hazard goals: 16 goals in all competitions

Lionel Messi goals: 39 goals in all competitions

Winner: Lionel Messi has scored more goals than Hazard

Assists in all competitions 2018/19:

Hazard assists: 11 assists

Lionel Messi assists: 21 assists

Winner: Lionel Messi has made more assists than Hazard

Successful dribbles per-game (2018/19):

Hazard successful dribbles: 4.2 successful dribbles per-game

Lionel Messi successful dribbles per-game: 4.5 successful dribbles per-game

Winner: Lionel Messi has completed more successful dribbles per-game than Hazard in 2018/19.

Minutes per goal:

Hazard: 184 minutes per goal

Lionel Messi: 77 minutes per goal

Winner: Lionel Messi has scored more goals per-minute than Hazard

Pass completion:

Hazard pass completion: 87.4% pass-success rate

Lionel Messi pass completion: 86.2% pass-success rate

Winner: Hazard has made more successful passes than Lionel Messi.

Key passes per-game ( Pass leading to a shot or goal chance):

Hazard key passes per-game: 2.8 key passes per-game

Lionel Messi key passes per-game: 3.3 key passes per-game

Winner: Hazard has made less key passes per-game than Lionel Messi.

Market Value:

Hazard’s market value: €105 million

Lionel Messi’s market value: €195 million

Winner: Lionel Messi has a higher market value than Hazard despite being 31-years-old while Hazard is 27-years-old.

Individual awards:

Hazard individual awards:

  • PFA Player of the Year (2014/15)
  • PFA Young Player of the Year (2013/14)

Lionel Messi individual awards:

  • FIFA Ballon D’Or (5 times)
  • UEFA Best Player in Europe (3 times)
  • Player of the Year (3 times)
  • Striker of the Year (La Liga 2014/15)
  • Top scorer (9 times- La Liga, Champions league, Supercopa)

Winner: Lionel Messi easily wins as he has far more individual awards than Hazard.

Overall better player: Lionel Messi

Overall, statistics show that Lionel Messi is better than Hazard. But, the Belgian can still be proud that he beat the Argentinian in some categories. Plus Hazard has been the better dribbler statistically than Lionel Messi. Hazard has been the FC Barcelona Player of the Year multiple times too. But Lionel Messi is on another footballing realm compared to Hazard. Messi is, in my opinion, the best footballer ever. Yes even better than Pele, Maradona, George Best and Cristiano Ronaldo etc.

Lionel Messi is well on his way to becoming the winner for the best player for the 6th time now given his form.

See also…

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2 COMMENTS

  2. this is a big loss! Other stats reveal that Hazard has similar power as Messi.
    I checked 1vs1 to compare the two players – and it really hit me how close those two are in terms of performance:

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