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.
It took way too long, but the first women's Madrid Derby between Real and Atlético was played on Saturday. The experience and quality of Las Colchoneras proved vital as Atleti claimed a 1-0 victory in the Primera División match.
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.
It’s days like this when you see Sergio Ramos, Luka Modrić and Karim Benzema laugh in the face of Champions League elimination that you truly appreciate how incredible this side was between 2013 and 2018.
The draw for UEFA World Cup 2022 Qualifying took place Monday, December 7, leaving us with an enticing list of matchups to look forward to in 2021.
The 2022 World Cup qualifying groups have been drawn for European countries pic.twitter.com/rfziJTsq0j
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 7, 2020
Barcelona's interim president Carlos Tusquets feels the club should have cashed-in on Lionel Messi during the summer transfer window.
Messi was heavily linked with a move to Manchester City and sent a recorded delivery (Burofax) letter stating his intention to leave. He later said the decision was due to being disillusioned with the direction the now former board had taken the club. Ex-Barça president Josep Maria Bartomeu resigned in October rather than face a vote of no confidence, with Tusquets taking temporary charge until January's elections.