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This March marks the end of an era.

For the first time in the last 16 years, neither Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo will be present in the quarterfinals of the top European competition.

His absences are opposed to the irruptions of

Mbappé

and

Haaland

.

French and Norwegian are the references of the new order.

The last time the Argentine and the Portuguese were dropped from the relevant phase of the tournament was in the 2004-05 campaign.

Barça, in the course of the premiere of the Flea, fell in the round of 16 against

José Mourinho's

Chelsea

after a controversial match at Stamford Bridge.

Manchester United, with the Portuguese striker in their ranks, was also downed in this round by Milan, who would lose the final to Liverpool on penalties.

Since then, one of the two great soccer dominators had always managed to reach, at least, the second of the final heats.

In 2006, the Catalans were proclaimed champions of the tournament in an edition in which United was left out of Europe after finishing fourth in a group in the Champions League whose leadership would fall to Villarreal.

The

Lille

able to goalless draw at Old Trafford and beat at home, relegated him to last place.

The Barcelona fans, the following year, would be eliminated in the second round by

Liverpool

, while the Red Devils would fall in the semifinals against Milan, who would win the final against the Anfield stadium team, 2-1.

Messi and Cristiano would cross their paths directly in the 2008 and 2009 editions of the Champions League. In the first, the Portuguese eliminated the Catalans in the semifinals and finally took the title after United beat Chelsea in the penalty shoot-out. .

In the second, meanwhile, it was the Barça fans who, in

Pep Guardiola's

first season

at the head of the bench, beat

Alex Ferguson's team

2-0

in a final in Rome, which was his last game with the English.

That summer he would join Real Madrid, a team with which he would suffer an unexpected hit after being eliminated by Lyon in the round of 16 in 2010.

From the 2010-11 season, meanwhile, both would be uninterrupted at least in the quarterfinals until the 2019-20 campaign, when the Portuguese was eliminated with Juventus again against Olympique Lyon in the second round.

A hard blow that has come back this year against Porto.

Messi, for his part, accumulated until now a streak of nine uninterrupted seasons passing round that has now been skewed by a PSG that was about to break it in 2017. Then, after falling 4-0 at the Parc des Princes, the Barça signed a dream 6-1 at the Camp Nou.

This time, however, the comeback was not possible.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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