A Lionel Messi free kick once again steered Barcelona’s ship in the quarter-finals of the Copa Del Rey overcoming the 2-1 deficit they had found themselves in at the end of the ninety at San Mames last Thursday. The Barcelona talisman’s strike made it 3-1 to guarantee Luis Enrique’s side a spot in the final eight, beating the Andalusian club 4-3 on aggregate.
The home fans gave an unpleasant response after Luis Suarez’s goal was unfairly ruled offside. But the Uruguayan got another chance to bring up his century of goals in spectacular fashion - coming off a glittering volley put together by Neymar. The Brazilian also got his name on the scoresheet to end his goal drought of over 1000 minutes.
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The Rojiblancos also made up for their disappointing first half performance with a quick reply through Enric Saborit’s header to keep the aggregate score ticking at 3-3. However, the Cules were rewarded for their hard work in the end, as Messi once again came to his side’s rescue to see them avoid an intense extra time. The Blaugranas now join Alarcon, Alaves, Real Sociedad and Atletico Madrid in the final eight of the tournament.
Here are 5 biggest talking points from the fixture –
#5 Barcelona witness some controversial refereeing again
This is not the first time it has happened with Barcelona. Recently, with Gerard Pique’s comments taking a dig at La Liga president Javier Tebas for what he considered biased refereeing, the eyeballs were on the match officials. And the game added more heat to the fire when a goal from Luis Suarez was disallowed in the 26th minute.
Not only did it receive an unpleasant response from the home fans, but the goal also would have set up the tempo for the Cules rather than reworking their way to find the opener. A similar situation occurred at the Estadio de la Ceramica stadium when the Blaugranas were denied two penalties in their away eventual 1-1 draw with Villarreal.
While these instances don’t occur often, they can prove to be a big deal when a club underperforms, as with Barcelona at the moment.
#4 MSN back at it again
The trio of Messi-Suarez-Neymar in the past two seasons has thrilled the footballing world, proving to be one of the lethal combinations. But off late, the latter two of the MSN had a couple of disappointing games where they left it all alone on Messi to take the team home. However, in a challenging second leg, they ensured their presence was felt with all three getting on the scoresheet.
Neymar was on a goal scoring drought since 19th October 2016 - his last goal coming against Manchester City in the Champions League. And while Luis Suarez made it into the FIFA World XI, the former Liverpool ace was struggling to make an impact before scoring a thundering volley assisted by the Brazilian.
The Uruguayan was very clever while approaching the repulsive Bilbao defence - making smart runs, dropping deep at times and bewildering the backline with his trickery. Neymar on the other hand, had an influential presence down the left flank, easing past the men in red and white; baffling them to ensure he got a goal to his name with a slick penalty.
#3 Athletic Bilbao fail to reignite the fire
Ernesto Valverde’s men were confident of producing a shocker, certainly after what they produced at the San Mames with 9 men to overcome Barcelona. But they had to also deal with some key misses in what would have also been influential in predicting the outcome.
Itturaspe’s absence left a void in midfield, while Raul Garcia’s effectual and robust threat up front was always going to be a big miss. On the other hand, Valverde’s tactics also flopped. His decision to rest their evergreen forward Aritz Aduriz until the second half for Sabin Merino bore no fruit.
Los Leones were, in fact, fortunate enough to find a reply coming from Enric Sabortiz due to Sergi Roberto’s lack of alertness. But after that moment, there were always on the backfoot and lacked any creative force up front. As the going got tougher, the Rojiblancos found it difficult to bring Iker Muniain later on when the game had already slipped.
#2 Does Rakitic slot into Luis Enrique’s plans?
The runner-up to Luka Modric for the Croatian Player of the Year Award, the former Sevilla ace, Ivan Rakitic has slotted seamlessly into the Barcelona midfield in the past couple of seasons, proving to be an ideal long-term successor to Xavi. However, when dropped in the La Liga outing against Villarreal, many questioned his future at Camp Nou with Manchester City rumoured to be interested in his services.
But despite the manager rubbishing off any such reports, the Croat recently has had to shell out some time on the bench ever after starting in the first leg.
Replacing Rakitic for the match, Rafinha Alcantara had a quiet game in midfield against the Andalusian club. Meanwhile, Andre Gomes has largely been anonymous along with Denis Suarez who has failed to offer anything worthwhile from the bench. If the current scenario carries on, it will be interesting to see what the future holds for Rakitic.
#1 Lionel Messi – Making life easy for Barcelona
While the Argentine lost hold of the Ballon d’Or for two successive years to Cristiano Ronaldo, he has always exhibited consistency whenever he’s put on the Barcelona shirt. And if one thing Messi keeps bettering is his knack of taking free kicks, scoring for the third consecutive time in as many games this year.
His goal in the first away leg gave his side an advantage heading home before he put the icing on the cake with a staggering free kick. Having misplaced a couple of free kicks previously in the match, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner this time, noticed the other angle which was exposed by the Bilbao wall to easily beat Iraizoz and take his side to the next round.
While his comparisons to the Portuguese show stopper have been an ongoing debate, this particular stat on free kicks shows how ridiculously good the little master is with them.
