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FC Barcelona – Lionel Messi Makes Everything Look Much Better
It has to be frustrating for manager and players, knowing that sometimes, despite all the talent surrounding and within the football club of Barcelona, all it takes to really get things going is simply the presence of one Lionel Messi on the pitch, even if he’s not 100%, and doesn’t need more than 30-35 minutes on the pitch to make all the problems go away.
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FC Barcelona – Lionel Messi Can’t Stop Scoring Even in Garbage Time
The Spanish La Liga, like other major leagues around Europe (all of them, maybe?) seem like one big garbage time in the second half of the season. So Barcelona are taking it easy knowing there are tougher challenges than “meaningless” league matches, but Lionel Messi simply keeps on scoring, setting records and making new standards for perfection and excellence.
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FC Barcelona – Lionel Messi & David Villa on Same Wavelength
What a difference a big win makes for a team and its players. Not that Lionel Messi was lacking any confidence in his scoring ability before; and it’s not that David Villa forgot how to score goals at any point of his more frustrating moments this season. Still, Barcelona had the swagger it was missing in recent matches, until their Champions League turnaround.
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FC Barcelona – Lionel Messi Gets the David Villa Help He Needed
When Barcelona failed to make it through into the Champions League final last season, everyone talked about how Barcelona needed a real striker to help Lionel Messi against defenses that park the bus. From the first minute in their comeback attempt against AC Milan, it was clear that Barca finally made the right choice up front, and all across the pitch.
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FC Barcelona – Lionel Messi Records Mean Nothing Sometimes
Who cares about breaking records when your team keeps losing in every big match? Lionel Messi now has more goals than anyone else (except for one player) in Clasico matches, ever, but Barcelona keep losing to their biggest rivals and the confidence and belief at least form the outside, seems shattered.
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El Clasico Aftershock – Barcelona Under Fire, Real Madrid Relaxed
This hasn’t happened in a very long time – Barcelona are the side under tons of pressure to come out of some sort of crisis, while Real Madrid are the other half of the El Clasico rivalry that feels completely relaxed and confident heading into the second league meeting between the two teams this season.
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FC Barcelona – Cesc Fabregas Didn’t Step Up When Needed
It’s impossible to completely neutralize everyone on the Barcelona attack, so while Lionel Messi was closed down by the usual double and triple teams; Andres Iniesta and Xavi limited in their ability to pass and influence the match, Cesc Fabregas was left as the most available game changer, but unfortunately for Barca, failed miserably.
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FC Barcelona – Lionel Messi Pulls a Disappearing Act
You’re allowed to have bad matches, but when your teams is at its worst, you expect Lionel Messi, or any big star with the ability to make a difference, to change the momentum of a match through some stroke of brilliance. Nothing worked for Barcelona on the terrible San Siro pitch, with so much blame to share around the team it’s impossible to throw just one player under the bus.
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FC Barcelona – Lionel Messi Doesn’t Stop in Garbage Time
The Spanish La Liga is so over, and we’re only in the middle of January. Barcelona are on cruise control for the rest of the season while bigger challenges await in the Champions League, although it doesn’t mean Lionel Messi is going to stop scoring.
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FC Barcelona – Lionel Messi Brings His Lazy Performance to Clasico
Not every match can be a Lionel Messi masterpiece, and in a match against an opponent that has the ability to make life very hard for him while still gain some control in the midfield, the world’s best player didn’t do anything out of the ordinary to himself be felt.