Ferguson has tapped into his wide network of scouts, staff and contacts - including his brother and Manchester United's chief European scout, Martin - to study Barcelona and Messi over the last two years.
Now they meet again in the final at Wembley on May 28. And the Old Trafford boss could not be better prepared to negate the threat from the world's greatest player.
Ferguson has statistics and information even the Argentinian maestro may not know about himself.
He knows how Messi gets the ball, what he does when he gets it, how to stop him getting it and how to neutralise him when he does.
In fact, he has been preparing for their next meeting since the final whistle blew on United's disappointing 2-0 defeat in Rome two years ago.
Ferguson was so annoyed that Barcelona had undone him because he felt his players simply did not follow orders.
The United boss has stopped Messi before. The Barca star was completely shut out over two legs of the 2008 semi-finals when United held the Catalans to a goalless draw in the Nou Camp and then won the return 1-0.
But it was a different story in Rome's Olympic Stadium when the little maestro scored the second goal in Barca's 2-0 win.
The United boss will not rely just on his staff at Old Trafford.
He will also talk to close friend Jose Mourinho whose Real Madrid side were dumped by Barca in the other semi.
And Ferguson, 69, has also used his own eyes, too, rather than take in live games or replays on TV and recordings.
After United beat Schalke 2-0 in the first leg of their semi in Gelsenkerchen on April 26, the team stayed over in Germany rather than fly straight back to England after the match as they normally would.
And the following day, Ferguson did not travel back with the team - but instead was on a plane to Madrid to watch Messi, 23, score both goals against Madrid in the first leg of the other semi.
Many may think Mourinho is not the best sounding-board, having been well beaten by Barca in the semi-finals and thrashed 5-0 in the Nou Camp in La Liga earlier this season. But Real blotted out Messi in the Copa del Rey final - which they won 1-0 - and also in the most recent league meeting, a 1-1 draw at the Bernabeu.
Tottenham legend Ardiles admitted: "For some time I thought that Diego could never be surpassed, nor Pele. But no longer.
"I would now say that Lionel Messi will go down in history as the No 1 player of all time, the best that there ever was.
source: The Sun (www.thesun.co.uk)
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