The Brazil national team manager Mano Menezes has said that he feels that Lionel Messi is truly the best player in the world right now.

The 24-year-old managed to tear apart the Brazilian national team in the recent friendly match. The Barcelona superstar scored a hat-trick in the 4-3 win over the Brazilians including a last-minute winner.

Ahead of the match, the talk was surrounding the Barcelona superstar and the Santos player Neymar, and Cristiano Ronaldo. Brazilian legend Pele had said prior to the match that he feels Neymar is a far better player than Lionel Messi, but he was made to eat his own words after the performance from the Argentine.

This led to the praise from the Brazilian coach Mano Menezes, who has come under pressure after the recent roundup of friendly matches. Mano Menezes recently came out with the decision to use young players in the upcoming friendlies in order to judge the quality of the squad ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup that will be held in Brazil. As a result, the team will not be playing in the World Cup qualifiers that has been a pre-tournament judging tool. Menezes said after the 4-3 defeat that he feels that Lionel Messi lived up to his tag as the best in the world.

"We will play against the best in the world. He has great individual ability and the ball simply can not reach him with the same freedom that it did during their clash with Ecuador. Another problem we have is that Argentina is already up to competitive pace [whereas Brazil have only been playing friendlies]. We must be prepared for a tough game. I am very pleased with the work done. Hopefully we will confirm our evolution against a great opponent," Menezes told ESPN Brasil.