LONDON, England (AP) — Lionel Messi may not have single-handedly guided Barcelona into today’s Champions League final against Manchester United, but the diminutive Argentine’s sublime talent and knack for spectacular goals sometimes make it seem that way.

Messi has scored 52 goals in 54 games this season to become the first Spanish league player to top the half-century mark, although he was soon joined by Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid.

But “The Flea” — as he is often referred to for his ability to buzz around defenders — has 11 Champions League goals to lead the tournament for a third straight season as the Catalan club narrows in on a second European Cup over that same period.

Barcelona’s current run of success — some consider this team to be among the best ever — owes much to midfield playmakers Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta plus inspirational captain Carles Puyol.

But there is no doubting the club’s fortunes are most closely linked to the Argentina forward, who has come to define a generation much in the way that greats like Alfredo Di Stefano, Diego Maradona and Johan Cruyff did.

Barcelona are playing to win their third European Cup in six seasons, and fourth overall since earning their first in 1992 at the old Wembley stadium.

Messi landed in Barcelona as a skinny 13-year-old, but a growth treatment helped put him on his way to reaching the senior team by 2004, and he became more of a fixture in the next season at the age of 18. Messi has been a regular starter since 2006, when Barcelona won their second European Cup with a 2-1 victory over Arsenal in Paris.

Messi, who missed that final to injury, has scored 137 goals in 158 matches in three seasons under coach Pep Guardiola, and his total of 179 club goals leaves him trailing only Ladislao Kubala (194) and Cesar Rodriguez (235) on Barcelona’s all-time scoring list, despite being just 23.

He also led the Spanish league in assists, with 19 this season, meaning he contributed to over 50 per cent of the three-time defending Spanish champion’s goals in the league.

While Messi is a phenomenon, he just tries to keep it simple.

“I’m going to go out and play like I always do,” Messi said of today’s final. “I hope I can score again (in the final). If not, I hope we still manage to lift the trophy.”

Messi doesn’t just run defences ragged with his precise control, speed on the ball, and a hunch for making a reflex dribble or cut back that leaves his markers on the floor. The two-time World Player of the Year can also challenge in the air as he did in Rome two years ago, when he looped a header home for the second goal in the 2-0 win over United.

The other side has a phenomenon of their own — Wayne Rooney.

Though his season has been defined by the loss of his goalscoring touch, injuries, contract wrangles and turmoil in his private life, Rooney’s redemption can be completed, by marking the end of a cheerless chapter in his young life by leading United to Champions League glory against Barcelona.

Goals at Wembley Stadium could also help Rooney upstage Barcelona forward Messi and re-establish himself as one of the finest attacking forces in world football.

Those comparisons with Messi have faded in the last 12 months since Rooney’s woeful World Cup where he failed to find the net once for England despite having scored 34 times for United in the preceding season.

The turning point in Rooney’s troubled season came in spectacular fashion, with an overhead kick in February against Manchester City that took his meagre goal tally to five.

A further 10 goals have come in the last three months and Ferdinand predicts that Rooney will rise to the occasion at Wembley and help the newly-crowned English champions collect a fourth European title

But had United ceded to Rooney’s transfer request in October he would not even be featuring in Alex Ferguson’s side today.

Rooney had deemed that United’s plans for the squad didn’t meet his expectations. After days of public insubordination, however, Rooney changed his mind — helped by a new five-year contract worth a reported £250,000 ($410,000) a week.