Lionel Messi was awarded the Golden Shoe on Friday for his attacking exploits during the 2016-17 season, the Barcelona star topping the European goal-scoring charts with 37 in the previous campaign.

Messi pipped Sporting CP striker Bas Dost (33 goals), Borussia Dortmund hit man Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (30), Barcelona teammate Luis Suarez (28), and Bayern Munich ace Robert Lewandowski (29) for the prize. This is his fourth Golden Shoe, having previously won the award for the 2009-10, 2011-12, and 2012-13 seasons. He succeeds Suarez for this year’s nod.

“I have kept growing off the field and on it. I am improving and adding things to my game, every day I enjoy being a footballer more,” Messi said, per the club’s official Twitter account.

The diminutive Argentine was unable to top his personal best with those 37 goals – Messi previously won the prize with 46 tallies in 2012-13 and 50 in 2011-12, the current record in this category.

Messi and archrival Cristiano Ronaldo now have four Golden Shoe awards each, with the latter’s 48 goals in 2014-15 accounting for his own best-ever tally, and his latest victory.

Jose Mourinho came to Daley Blind’s defence after the Manchester United defender blamed himself for FC Basel’s late winner Wednesday.

Michael Lang was the hero for the Swiss side when he outpaced Blind to get on the end of a low cross and fired the ball in from close range in the 89th minute of the Champions League group stage encounter.

Blind conceded that he was at fault, but his manager was quick to defend the Dutch defender, and instead highlighted the team’s shortcomings during a dominant first half in which United squandered plenty of opportunities to find the back of the net.

“The only thing I can get from the goal is the low cross, the right-back coming in front of Daley,” Mourinho told reporters, according to Rob Dawson of ESPN FC.

“I know that in the flash interview Daley was blaming himself. It’s totally unfair.

“I refuse that situation because we are a team, and in the first half we should be winning five or 6-0 and that was not Daley’s fault for sure.”

The 1-0 loss was United’s first of the competition this term and denied Mourinho’s men of clinching a spot in the knockout rounds.

United will next look to secure first place in the group on the final matchday of the group phase against CSKA Moscow at Old Trafford on Dec. 5.

There was a hint of panic to Gazzetta dello Sport’s front-page headline on Monday morning. “Wake up, (Paulo) Dybala,” commanded Italy’s iconic pink paper. “(Lionel) Messi is here.”

You could understand the concern. It’s not every day that a five-time Ballon d’Or winner rolls into town. Gazzetta could hardly have known that Messi was here only for a cameo appearance, the “also starring” at the end of a glitzy cast list.

The Argentinian had not begun a game on the bench for Barcelona in more than a year. He had played every minute for the Catalans in both La Liga and the Champions League this season. Messi did miss out on the first leg of his team’s Copa del Rey clash with Murcia, but only because he was serving a suspension.

Why would Ernesto Valverde leave him out against such prestigious opposition? The underwhelming truth is that beating Juventus simply wasn’t a top priority. Barcelona has seven more games to come in the next four-and-a-half weeks, a run that begins with a trip to second-placed Valencia on Sunday and ends with El Clasico on Dec. 23.

Any slip-up domestically would be costly. Even a defeat to Juventus, by contrast, was unlikely to mean a great deal. True enough, the Italians could have pulled level on points with Barcelona in Champions League Group D, but they would have needed to win by more than three goals to go top, since that was the margin they lost by at the Camp Nou in September.

And so, what should have been the most alluring game in this midweek round was instead reduced to something more mundane. Barcelona without Messi is, on this evidence at least, a Michelin-starred dinner with no seasoning. All the elements still look alluring on the plate, but they add up to something rather bland.

No team is duty bound to entertain and the 0-0 final scoreline Barcelona secured in Turin – with Messi eventually entering as a 56th-minute substitute – guaranteed it first place in the group. The onus was on Juventus to exploit a team missing its star player. Instead, the Bianconeri were meek.

Some 224 days have passed since Dybala’s brace set Juventus on course to a 3-0 win over Barcelona in the quarter-finals of last season’s competition. It was supposed to be a coming-of-age moment, a young superstar stepping out of his compatriot’s shadow. Pundits called Dybala the “new Messi.” He preferred to be seen as the first version of himself.

Dybala has never been shy of ambition. As he told France Football in an interview published this week, “When I was little, after school, as summer arrived, we used to gather around a bonfire. One time, we took turns to make a wish. I said that I wanted to become the best footballer in the world, and therefore to win the Ballon d’Or.”

He is closer than he’s ever been, named to the award’s 30-man shortlist last month. And yet, that prize still feels a long way off on a night such as this one.

With Messi offstage until this game’s final act, Dybala had a chance to steal the show. Instead, he gave us only a handful of compelling scenes: a mazy dribble which culminated in a wayward shot late in the first half, then a low drive that demanded a good save from Marc-Andre ter Stegen at the end of the second.

In that same conversation with France Football, Dybala’s interviewer asked whether he might one day engage in a great rivalry with Neymar – as Messi has done with Cristiano Ronaldo. The Juventus player confessed he liked the idea, but acknowledged he had a lot of catching up to do first.

Neymar scored twice on Wednesday, helping Paris Saint-Germain to a 7-1 romp past Celtic. The Brazilian has five goals and three assists in four Champions League appearances this season. Dybala has none of either. He has not scored in this competition since that spell-binding performance against Barcelona in the spring.

Comparisons with Messi were always futile, if inevitable. It isn’t within Dybala’s powers to contain the hype that surrounds him as a young No. 10 on one of Europe’s most prestigious teams. We have no reason, in any case, to believe he’s distracted by his own celebrity. Dybala has always been a hard worker, prepared to put in the long hours required to reach his own lofty goals.

The onus is on Juventus now to help him deliver on his promise. Barcelona built its greatest teams around Messi. If the Italian champion truly believes, as CEO Beppe Marotta hinted before kick-off, that it’s found a comparable talent, then it must have the courage to do the same.

Perhaps Juventus ought to have been brave enough, too, to go all-out for a victory on this occasion. Even in defeat, Juventus would still have stayed second in the group, ahead of Sporting by virtue of head-to-head results. A win in its final game would still have been guaranteed to send them through.

The reward on offer for a victory, meanwhile, was significant: a chance to tie up qualification early, and offer the outside possibility of climbing into first place. Better yet, the possibility to sew a seed of doubt in Barcelona’s mind about whether that decision to leave Messi on the bench really was the right decision after all.

(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)

Following Sevilla’s dramatic 3-3 draw with Liverpool, which saw the Spanish side erase a 3-0 deficit with a trio of second-half goals, Wissam Ben Yedder couldn’t help but be reminded of one of the most famous nights in Champions League history.

Ben Yedder, who scored a brace during the contest to become Sevilla’s all-time leading scorer in the competition, tweeted an image of the final scoreline with a message that referenced Liverpool’s stunning come-from-behind victory over AC Milan to win the 2005 final.

Needless to say, Ben Yedder’s post triggered several fiery responses from Reds supporters.

“English fans (are) the best,” Ben Yedder said facetiously in response to an offensive tweet.