I can’t think of a more terrifying proposition in football than lining up as a right back against Kylian Mbappé. Sergiño Dest found out just how quickly things can turn as the young American was subbed out after Barcelona conceded three straight goals in a 4-1 defeat to PSG on Tuesday.
Lionel Messi equaled former teammate Xavi’s Barcelona record of 505 LaLiga appearances on Saturday against Alavés. He marked the record by scoring two worldies, two more examples that he has the greatest left foot in the history of the game.
Barcelona beat Alavés 5-1, both Messi and Francisco Trincão netting twice to bring the Blaugrana into second place, ahead of Real Madrid on goal differences. Messi was the star man in the landmark match.
Sevilla FC, anyone? Julen Lopetegui’s side is the hottest commodity in Europe not named Manchester City following Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Barcelona in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semifinal matchup.
That’s now eight straight wins in all competitions for Sevilla (four in LaLiga and four in the Copa), results that’ve pushed the side to fourth in the league (just one point behind Barça) and the cusp of the Copa final.
He already said it himself a few weeks ago: Lionel Messi will make a decision on his future once the 2020-21 season is over. In the meantime, Barcelona is still dreaming of retaining him once the new president of the club is known after the March elections.
Barcelona winger Francisco Trincão scored his first goal for the club to snatch a 3-2 win away to Real Betis on Sunday as Ronald Koeman's side pulled off a second comeback victory in the space of four days.
Barça coach Ronald Koeman took the surprising decision to leave Lionel Messi and the in-form Frenkie de Jong out of his starting lineup and saw his side fall behind to a Borja Iglesias strike on the counterattack in the 38th minute.
Barcelona racked up 79 percent possession and 36 shots (20 on goal) in Wednesday’s Copa del Rey match against Granada, 29 more shots that the host. The end result was a 5-3 victory that was anything but easy, despite the final score and the wildly mismatched statistics.
No hay que estar dentro de la cabeza de Lionel Messi para saber que el partido contra el Athletic Bilbao iba ser más extraño de lo normal. Primero, el argentino volvía de una suspensión de dos encuentros después de ser expulsado ante el mismo equipo vasco en la final de la Supercopa de España. Luego, la atención sobre su figura tendría un foco diferente tras la portada del diario “El Mundo”, el cual filtró el astronómico contrato que tiene el “10” con el Barcelona: 555.237.619 euros (673.919.105 dólares) por cuatro temporadas. O sea, $167 millones al año.
Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann fired Barcelona to a 2-1 win at home to Athletic Bilbao in LaLiga on Sunday, avenging their recent defeat to the Basque side in the Spanish Super Cup final.
Messi curled in a free kick after 20 minutes for his 650th Barça goal on the day the club pledged to sue Spanish newspaper El Mundo for publishing the full details of the Argentine's contract.
Just when you thought Barcelona had turned the corner with four straight league wins and a place in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey, here comes that nasty debt of $1.42 billion and the ugly realization that the greatest footballer of all-time is headed out the back door again! (Along with another Luis Suárez brace for Atlético.)
MADRID — Lionel Messi returned from suspension to help guide Barcelona to a 2-1 win away to Rayo Vallecano on Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey.
Barca dominated the match and hit the woodwork three times but second division Rayo took a surprise lead in the 63rd minute when Barca keeper Neto failed to deal with a low cross and midfielder Fran Garcia pounced to bundle the ball over the line.