What happened yesterday was nothing short of impressive. Messi was benched, probably to keep him for the next game against Sevilla in the Copa del Rey semi-finals, so Barça weren't able to do much with the ball. Iglesias, in one of Betis' few chances in the first half, gave them the lead and put the Catalan side in trouble. They had no shots on target for the first time since at least the 2003/04 season, showing how crucial Messi was to the team. In the second half, Messi was subbed on and he immediately made the difference as he scored the equalizer. Later, Ruiz scored an own goal with Messi having a part as he assisted Grizemann who's miss rebounded on him. Despite Ruiz scoring the equalizer, Trincão finished the job with a pass from Messi being blocked and then being picked up by him and scoring. Messi's stats were: 1 goal, 1 SOT (2 in total), 3 dribbles, 2 key passes, 5 ground duels won, 2 fouls won, 1 long ball, 1 cross, 3 pressures, 18 passes, an 32 touches, earning himself yet another MoTM performance.
Here's a video of his awesome performance:
Once more, it appears that Messi is always the key factor in Barcelona, and with some key players injured, that has become even more true recently. He's also proved yet again why he's the best player in the league, as we can see in the following pictures:
As we can see, complete and utter domination from him regardless of the source.
This time, Barcelona missed 3 big chances, and it could have been costly, but they ultimately won and kept their second-place spot in La Liga, though we need Real Madrid and Sevilla to drop some points as well if we want to keep it that way.
Now, we have to focus on the Copa del Rey semi-final against Sevilla, and hopefully we can hold them away. Anyways, that was it for today, see you in the next blog!
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