Week 34 - A Messi situation of their own making

     The unassuming, scruffy-haired little man had been in the first team for nearly 10 years. A decade, and he was still only 26. Still had pretty much the same haircut too. Along the way he'd smashed records and won many shiny trophies, always at the forefront of his team. But now, after nine seasons and some 241 goals in 273 league games, some Barcelona fans had begun to turn on Leo Messi. No-one questioned whether the magic in his feet had left him - after all he still has 26 goals in 27 games in the league and is behind only Ronaldo and Diego Costa in the Pichichi rankings - but whispers had begun circulating concerning the little magician's drive, even his commitment to the Barça cause.
     The whispers soon grew into jeers and even personal insults following poor results over the past couple of weeks. After three defeats in a row - to Atlético Madrid in the Champions League, Granada in La Liga and Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final - the players had arrived back at Camp Nou to find irate fans waiting for them, hurling a barrage of boos and insults. Some players came in for more flak than others; Dani Alves partly because he had announced his intention to leave the club in future, Neymar on account of his inability to mould himself quickly to the Barça style of play, in addition to the shame brought on the club by his dodgy transfer (although that's not his fault) and Pinto because...well, because he's Pinto. But as if three successive defeats wasn't unexpected enough, the previously unthinkable had begun to occur. The previously untouchable Leo Messi, four-time Ballon d'Or winner and top-scorer in the club's history with a frankly disgusting 351 in all official competitions, also copped some personal abuse on each of these occasions.

Messi comforted by CR7 after the Copa
del Rey final defeat

     The personal insults ranged from the mild (but still no doubt cutting, for an athlete in the prime of his life) and tongue-in cheek 'try and run a bit less' to cries that he had brought 'shame' on the fans with his latest performances. A poll in (the admittedly pro-Madrid) sportspaper Marca ahead of the weekend's game asked fans to rate Messi's season. Bearing in mind the still-astronomical numbers being posted by the man from Rosario, some on the outside might be surprised to see that 36.8% of respondents thought he'd had a 'regular' season compared to 28.9% who thought he'd been 'bad' and 21.5% who think he's had a 'very bad' year. After all he's missed quite a few games due to injury and his team are still well in the running for the Primera Liga title, even if they are now outsiders.
     The Argentine press has been in full fingers-crossed mode over the past couple of weeks as Messi's form has stuttered, with many on that side of the ocean hoping praying hard that he's saving himself for a big performance in the World Cup. After all, a lot of people (who are talking out of their arse if you ask me) reckon you can't be considered the best player in the world unless you lift the World Cup. These people presumably believe Stéphane Guivarc'h was a better player than George Best, then. Hmmm.
     In truth, this may have been one of the toughest seasons yet for Messi. The long year began with the player turning up on the front as well as the back pages after he and his father were dragged to court numerous times on tax evasion charges. The winger then sustained a few injuries (and has continued to do so since Guardiola left - Pep blames his decision to leave his Camp Nou project on Messi, who had stopped taking his advice on conditioning) and did not immediately receive the improved contract he'd been hankering after.

One of them appreciated the
goal more than the others..

     On Saturday night at home to Athletic Bilbao he managed to put whatever demons are haunting him to one side for at least 5 seconds to take a free kick in the 74th minute with the score at 1-1. The Basques had been the better team over the game before then and were unlucky not to take the lead in the first half when the highly impressive Aritz Aduriz rattled Pinto's post with a superb bicycle kick. The Athletic number 20 did notch early in the second half though after receiving the ball from the tiny but bull-necked Iker Muniain and shooting it close to Pinto. This is usually enough for a goal and so it proved here, Bilbao were ahead and good value for it. In the 71st minute, Pedro bumbled the ball over the line for 1-1 after Alexis Sánchez shanked a shot roughly towards goal following an excellent run from Dani Alves.
     Up to this point Messi had not been involved massively in the game, but he hit the free kick hard and true and was enveloped by his teammates as they acclaimed his 26th goal of the season. In truth the wall was set up poorly and had Gorka Iraizoz in the Bilbao goal just stood still the ball would have struck him and Barcelona would be a further two points behind Atleti. Still, you takes the breaks when they're offered to you. Barça then survived late Athletic pressure and a scare right at the death to take all 3 points and maintain pressure on Madrids Atlético and Real.

Atleti manage to score a pen

     The league leaders hosted Elche on Friday night and for the second week in a row were indebted to one of their centre-backs for getting them off the mark. Miranda, who's hoping for a spot in the Brazil squad for the upcoming World Cup, as well as a name-change perhaps, scored in the 71st minute straight from a corner. Maybe Cholo Simeone should think about letting his defenders take any penalties won in future as David Villa became the latest to waste the chance to score from the spot, shooting straight at Manu Herrera. Atlético did eventually manage to actually score a penalty late on nonetheless, Diego Costa this time screwing up his eyes and smashing the ball in the vague direction of the goal to wrong-foot the 'keeper. He'd won the spot-kick himself after characteristically flapping to the deck when Săpunaru came within 15 feet of him. The Romanian was still shaking his head at the decision as he walked down the tunnel after the ref agreed that going anywhere near Diego Costa is indeed a sanctionable offence. Christ, Costa's nearly as bad as Ashley Young, and that's saying something.
     The weekend's results leave Barcelona still four points adrift of Atlético and two ahead of eternal rivals Real, who enjoyed a weekend off due to their upcoming Champions League semi-final. Apparently the Spanish FA can't work out how to play two matches on a Friday night. Not that los Blancos were complaining as they were afforded time off to relax by the pool or head off on a jolly to Dubai. Or in Pepe's case scheme on how to piss off the largest number of people possible on his next foray into the world of televised football, which just happens to come against the Bayern machine on Wednesday.

Paulão can't take any more. Or he's throwing shapes.

     Sevilla closed in on Athletic Bilbao's fourth spot with an emphatic 4-0 win over Granada, the opening being of the own-goal variety by the curiously-named Mainz. Kévin Gameiro, Vitolo and the coconut-headed emotional basket-case Stéphane Mbia rounded off the victory in the second half. There was an own-goal too at Vallecas, where the woeful Paulão scored Rayo Vallecano's second before actually asking to be subbed off even before the half hour mark. He explained on Monday that he hadn't wanted to keep screwing up and there were "players who'd be able to bring more to the team than me in the moment I was suffering." Strange, nonetheless. Larrivey and Blackburn reject Rubén Rochina scored the others for Rayo, before the unfortunately-named Chica scored at the right end for rock-bottom Real Betis.
     Of the others in the relegation zone only Getafe managed to pick up a point following an awful, awful 0-0 draw at Levante. Really, they could've just met up before the game and agreed to give both teams a point, saving everyone the trouble. Almería remain second-bottom but were far more value for money in a rip-roaring 4-2 home defeat to Celta Vigo, Nolito bagging a brace for the away team. In the remaining games Real Sociedad beat Espanyol 2-1, Carlos Vela grabbing the winner in injury time, while Osasuna played out a 1-1 draw with Valencia which doesn't much help either team's quests at either end of the table.
     The Monday night game saw Málaga welcome Villarreal to La Rosaleda. Roque Santa Cruz opened the scoring for los Boquerones in the sixth minute, and the second half started with Duda attempting to lob former Málaga 'keeper Sergio Asenjo from range before Noureddine Amrabat went on a Gareth Bale-type run and picked out Sergi Darder arriving late and unmarked in the area to make it 2-0. The Dutch-Moroccan later saw red for questioning the referee's eyesight but the Costa del Sol side managed to see the game out and move onto 41 points, surely safe from relegation now. To watch it, one wouldn't think Villarreal had needed the points to continue pushing for Europe, but that was the case. They now remain two points behind Real Sociedad. The commentator seemed to grow increasingly exasperated as the game went on though, with ever-louder sights. One could only feel he'd had a bit of a heavy Easter weekend and felt he was probably sweating more than the Málaga fan who kept drumming throughout the whole encounter.

Result of the weekend for Alavés. Maybe a different
away kit next season though, eh lads?

     In the Segunda, Deportivo continued their march back to the big time with a standard 3-0 away win at Mallorca with goals from Sissoko, Luisinho and Borja. Eibar, in second, beat Real Madrid Castilla 1-0, Capa scoring after 11 minutes. Castilla continue to flounder this season and find themselves under the shadow of relegation. Meanwhile, Barcelona B went 1-0 down at home to Girona through a 29th minute opener from Ortuño before storming back thanks to goals from Sandro and a late screamer from Munir, who'd only been on the pitch a matter of minutes. They remain in third, level on 54 points with island teams Tenerife and Las Palmas. Behind those three it's turned into a right kerfuffle, with eight teams all within four points of each other. At the bottom, Alavés did themselves a huge favour by overcoming the odds in the result of the weekend, winning 2-0 at highly-placed Recreativo. The goals came from Manu García and Borja Viguera, who overtakes Stefan Šćepović of Sporting Gijón in the Pichichi rankings for the Segunda with 22 in 35 games.

Athletic vs Málaga and look ahead to Copa final

On Wednesday night Valencia's Mestalla stadium hosts a Clásico in the Copa del Rey final.

     The teams come into the game in vastly different mindsets. Barcelona, having crashed out of the Champions League and lost second place in La Liga inside a week, are in bullish mood but one senses a terseness beneath the interviews given in the press. Real Madrid appear more at ease, but as with all derbies - and Clásicos in particular - form is temporary and the battle is all that matters. Literally, most of the time. It is of course just a few short weeks since los Blancos managed to balls-up at home to their hated enemies, and Barcelona will be hoping to emulate that victory in Valencia.

Carlo's eyebrow making a break for it

     Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti, left eyebrow permanently aflutter, revealed that the players would be practicing penalties ahead of the game for all of five minutes, although he would obviously hope to have the game well and truly finished before such a lottery became necessary. He also confirmed that, as expected, Ronaldo wouldn't be playing a part, although the Portuguese will be travelling with the squad along with the other injured players. Ancelotti also said he had his starting XI in mind but would not be revealing it to the press beforehand. Nevertheless, the Italian stated he was setting his team up 'to play our game with our identity' rather than attempting to respond to Barcelona's tactics. He conceded that the opposition would have the lion's share of possession, and so his team will have to 'control the game with the ball, and for that we need courage and personality, which are the most important traits for playing a final'.

Tata: "The last 2 games were clean"

     His opposite number, Tata Martino, recognised that the final represents a possible tonic for his squad after a torrid last week, although he is ruing the defensive injuries that have left him considering whether or not to play the creaking Puyol, who trained with the squad on Wednesday morning along with Marc Bartra. The Argentine manager refused to be drawn on Ronaldo's injury, but said he hopes for a clean game, expanding that 'the last two games against Real Madrid have been clean and well played by both teams'. It would seem he may have elected to forget Busquets stepping on Pepe's face a few weeks ago, apparently.
     As both presidents were posing with the Copa on Wednesday morning the press managed to wangle a quote out of Madrid head honcho Florentino Pérez, who rather diplomatically claimed 'we're not favourites, but we're optimistic'. On Tuesday, a few of the players had been wheeled out in front of the headline writers and as per usual nothing much of particular note was uttered, as is the way of such things. It seems footballers are paraded in front of the press in search of quotes, but whenever they say anything mildly interesting it gets blown out of all proportion as them calling the opposition manager's mum a whore or somesuch. The closest to interesting it got was when Iker Casillas was asked about his previous comment that he'd "slap" Spain teammate Sergio Busquets for the aforementioned foot-on-face altercation with Pepe. The goalkeeper said "I won't add to the circus that's blown up around this. I'll see him tomorrow and this matter will take up only two seconds of our conversation."

     The week began, however, with the impressive new San Mamés hosting Málaga in the final game of Week 33, with both teams needing the points for very different reasons. Athletic showed by far the greater desire to claim the win and re-establish their 6 point advantage over Sevilla in the battle for the fourth Champions League spot, and their positivity paid off early as Aritz Aduriz headed the Basques ahead in just the fourth minute from a corner. The striker scored again pretty much straight away at the beginning of the second half, taking his tally for 2014 alone to 12 goals, second only to the now-misfiring Messi. The man from Donostia had several chances to complete his hat-trick but was foiled by man-of-funny-name Willy in the Málaga goal. Nonetheless, Willy (tee-hee) was not at his best for the third Athletic goal, allowing a tame Ander Herrera shot to spill through his gloves. Feel free to make your own jokes about Willy and a slippery ball - just don't send them to me.
     For the Andalucians, who were pretty dire throughout, the result means they stay on 38 points in 11th, unlikely to threaten either the European places or those in the relegation zone now there's only five games left. They've been pretty shaky under Bernd Schuster this season and were in and around the drop zone for quite a portion of the season.