Ten-man Granada defeated nine-man Valencia on Wednesday in one of the most ridiculously officiated games you’ll ever see at the highest level of professional sport. Adrián Cordero Vega was the man in the middle, and his performance included a questionable decision at the monitor followed by three red cards in six minutes.
There’s no shame in being excited by the collection of USMNT talent in LaLiga. The trio of Sergiño Dest, Konrad de la Fuente and Yunus Musah already represents a golden age of Americans in Spain’s top flight, although there’s something incredibly U.S. Soccer about the fact that they currently boast almost as many international caps as they do LaLiga appearances.
Lionel Messi could only watch from the Camp Nou stands — dressed like an arctic explorer in 50°F weather — as Barcelona stumbled to a 1-1 draw with an Eibar side that entered the match in 17th place on Tuesday.
It was a night to forget for center back Ronald Araújo, who was at fault for Eibar’s goal, and striker Martin Braithwaite, who missed a penalty in the eighth minute.
Barcelona forward Lionel Messi will miss Tuesday's match at home to Eibar due to an ankle injury, the LaLiga club said on Sunday.
Barcelona found accommodating opponents on Tuesday in relegation-threatened Valladolid, allowing Ronald Koeman to experiment with his formation and personnel and Lionel Messi to overtake Pelé for the most goals ever for a single club.
Leading 2-0 in the 65th-minute, Pedri produced a gorgeous ball for Messi to score his 644th goal Barça. Pelé scored 643 for Brazil’s Santos.
Emphasis on the assist from the 18-year-old Spaniard.
Lionel Messi has admitted the ill feeling between him and Barcelona over his attempt to leave the club in the close season has affected his form this season, in which he has posted his lowest goal and assist tallies in 13 years.
Messi caused consternation at Barça when he sent the club a burofax (official notice) that he wanted to leave in August, but then president Josep Maria Bartomeu blocked the move and the Argentine committed to stay this season to avoid a legal battle. He has less than seven months left on his contract and is able to negotiate with other clubs from January.
Since losing 2-0 to Shakhtar Donetsk on Dec. 1, Real Madrid has won five straight matches over a 15-day period — including Sunday’s 2-1 win over Eibar — to finish top of Champions League Group B and climb to second in LaLiga.
The quality of the previous four opponents is worth mentioning (Sevilla, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Atlético Madrid and Athletic Bilbao), as is the fact that the 35-year-old Luka Modrić has started each of those matches while playing at his 2018 Ballon d'Or level.
Jorge Pulido received two yellow cards on Friday, including a second that conceded a decisive penalty kick as his Huesca lost 2-0 to Athletic Bilbao. But the weirdest moment of the match was when the Spanish center back found a cell phone — yes, a cell phone — on the pitch in the middle of the game.
2020 has been a tough year financially both for clubs and for players.
The economic effect of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen transfer values deflate, with the value of many players decreasing independent of their form on the pitch by 10-20 percent.
For clubs this means their assets are worth less to go with a sharp decrease in revenue caused by matches without fans. For players, this means their skills are worth less as well as a decrease in salaries.
Barcelona stopped the rot — for the time being — by defeating 18th-place Levante 1-0 at the Camp Nou on Sunday to climb to eighth in LaLiga. The home side put 13 shots on target but the only one that counted was Lionel Messi’s angled finish in the 76th-minute following Frenkie de Jong’s well-weighted ball.
It’d been a terrible week for Barcelona as last Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Cádiz was followed by a 3-0 beatdown from Juventus in the Champions League, a result which condemned Barcelona to facing one of Bayern, Dortmund, Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea or PSG in the Round of 16.