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Lionel Messi’s 600th goal carried Barcelona closer to his eighth league title with the club. As the ball hit the net the Camp Nou chanted his name. It was early still and there would be nervous moments to overcome, Atlético Madrid refusing to relinquish their challenge without a fight, but he had done it again, as they thought he might.
At the end, there was a huge roar here: another big night had the No 10’s signature scrawled across it. “If Messi had been wearing an Atlético shirt, we would have won,” Diego Simeone, the Atlético manager, said. His opposite number, Ernesto Valverde, said: “There’s no one like him in the world. I don’t know what would have happened [if he’d been on the other team] nor do I want to imagine it.”
The title might be heading elsewhere for a start. A single goal was enough but what a goal it was. The clock showed 26 minutes and the ball was 25 yards from goal, just left of centre as Jan Oblak, the Atlético goalkeeper, looked at it. The problem was that it was one thing seeing it, another stopping it. It was, after all, Messi standing there and he bent the ball in a long, sharp arc towards the top corner, swinging fast. Oblak scrambled across, diving, hand outstretched but could not keep it out. It was the third free-kick Messi had scored in a week, one a game for three games, and his sixth this season. Both are records in La Liga, where Barcelona now have an eight-point lead. “It’s not definitive but we have taken a step,” Valverde said.
Jan Oblak can’t prevent Lionel Messi giving Barcelona the lead. Photograph: Albert Gea/Reuters
Five games ago that lead had been 11 but three draws – against Espanyol, Getafe, and Las Palmas – saw it cut to five, the narrowest it had been since Week 6. Since Diego Costa’s arrival at Christmas, Atlético had been relentless, winning eight and drawing one of nine matches, closing in and contenders once more. Even with 11 more games to go this was set up as a title decider but Atlético weren’t not able to win here. When the moment came, declared a decider, Barcelona beat them. “The best player is with them,” Simeone said.
The goal did not come in isolation. The ball had been Barcelona’s, the game played in Atlético’s half. By half time, the visitors had taken a solitary shot – a long, harmless effort from Thomas Partey. If Barcelona had not created a really clear chance – assuming that 25-yard free-kicks do not count as clear chances, although with Messi that may need rethinking – the pressure had built since Andrés Iniesta’s early shot deflected wide. Oblak saved from Sergio Busquets, Luis Suárez had two efforts blocked and Messi somehow escaped a three-man cage, only for his shot to be under-hit. When it came to the goal, the shot was perfectly hit.
Other efforts followed. Philippe Coutinho bent one into Oblak’s arms, then had a shot pushed away, and Gerard Piqué headed over from a corner before the break. Something shifted in the second half, although Barcelona had already looked less assured once Iniesta had been forced off injured. Atlético took a step forward that was announced when Busquets was almost caught four minutes in. They knew they had to go for it and the changes reflected that: Sime Vrsaljko and Gabi were removed early, Ángel Correa and Kevin Gameiro replacing them and there were still 15 minutes left when Simeone went to three at the back.
Barcelona were uncomfortable, particularly André Gomes, on for Iniesta. Costa, chasing alongside Samuel Umtiti, had his first shot and Antoine Griezmann sliced over. If the sense of danger was there, it rarely solidified. “There was nervousness and you always have that feeling but they didn’t make clear chances,” Valverde said. The game opened up and tiredness showed. Barcelona found space to run into if not always the legs to do it. Messi’s shot deflected over and Oblak pushed away from Busquets. At the other end Gameiro had the ball in the net but the flag was up. Suárez did the same but he, too, was denied. Messi was not: his moment had decided the game and perhaps the title.
(GUARDIAN)
