Atletico Madrid 1-1 FC Barcelona: 5 takeaways

#2 No Messi magic at the Wanda Metropolitano

A rare bad day for the Argentine magician

Barcelona's star man was the man of the match award due to his passing accuracy and dribbles. He also assisted the goal of Ousmane Dembele. But in spite of the fact that he was the man of the match, it was a poor day at the office for the diminutive Argentine.

He dropped deep to collect the ball several times but could do little to break the Atleti defence down. He had no successful through balls yesterday which is the prime reason for him being a dangerous playmaker. He also missed some good chances from a suitable range from the free-kicks.

Moreover, we missed Messi's trademark outside of the box left-foot curler. Atleti held their shape and the only thing to be done was to take long shots but that did not happen. Messi's link-up play with Suarez and Alba was miserable as well.

During some intense moments, it seemed as if he tried too hard, all by himself while he could have just played the extra pass. One glaring mistake from Messi was trying to take on the defender when he could have played a through ball to set Malcom free on a 1v1.

It was not horrendous from Messi but it is surely the things we expect Messi to do rather than not. We expect Messi to create that magic. Not blaming him alone but he was poor on the night.