Lionel Messi has managed to answer whether he'd be able to 'do it on a cold, Tuesday night in Stoke' - well, sort of.
Despite having won everything possible during his career, breaking multiple records and even being ranked at no.1 in FourFourTwo's list of the greatest players of all time, Lionel Messi still has his detractors questioning whether he'd have been able to perform against a Tony Pulis-led Stoke City circa 2010 on a bitterly cold midweek evening.
But while the Argentine great is no longer playing in Europe, let alone in the Championship where Stoke City play, he has still proven his credentials in similar conditions while turning out for Inter Miami.
Lionel Messi proves Tuesday night in Stoke theory wrong
Coming up against Sporting Kansas City in the first leg of their first round tie of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, Messi and his team-mates, including Sergio Busquets and Luis Suarez, were subjected to the freezing temperature of -17 degrees.
A total of 15,178 fans turned up to the Children's Mercy Park in Kansas City on Wednesday night to watch the game.
Reports had previously suggested that Messi didn't even want to play in the match, with the cold temperatures too low for the 37-year-old. Those reports proved false, however, with Messi playing the full 90 minutes and scoring the game's only goal in the 56th minute.
Busquets lofted a ball over the Sporting Kansas City defence to Messi, who controlled on his chest before scoring in the bottom left corner.
That result puts Inter Miami in the ascedancy of the tie, with the return leg set to be played back in Florida on Wednesday, 26 February. In the meantime, though, Messi and Co. will get their MLS campaign underway as they host New York City on Saturday night (Sunday morning GMT).
After finishing top of the Eastern Conference last season, Inter Miami failed to make their dominance count in the play-offs as they lost their three-legged tie against Atalanta United.
While Messi didn't quite answer the question of doing it on a Tuesday in Stoke, he did at least manage to prove extreme conditions are unable to stop him from performing at his best. In FourFourTwo's view, that's what makes him so unquestionably great.
