Europe's Top 5 Leagues: The best performers from last week

#4 Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi: Saviour

How valuable is Lionel Messi? How good are Barcelona without him? We found the answers to both the questions in the first half of Barcelona vs Bilbao. Ernesto Valverde decide to rest his best two players, Messi and Busquets. Having held Real Madrid to a draw earlier it had to be noted that Bilbao aren’t pushovers.

Barcelona’s first half was terrible for their standards. Not much creativity, one or two shots at goal from Suarez which didn’t seem much trouble to the keeper. To add to the woes, at the brink of half time, a terrible defensive shut-down caused the first goal from Oscar De Marcos.

Barcelona’s defence against high balls has been terrible in the season which just started. Without Lionel Messi on the pitch, the team’s morale was down and they wasted chances. Bilbao on the other end was fearless.

Valverde had no other option but to put Lionel Messi on the pitch to salvage something from the game. Lionel Messi’s impact was certainly visible on the game. Barcelona looked very potent in their attacks and Bilbao switched on to defensive. Barcelona’s attacks were taking shape in a very high tempo and the equaliser was always coming. Messi dropped deep as always, but he had an unusually high work rate compared to his normal walking game. He sprinted forward, always on the lookout for open spaces.

Bilbao shut their gates down but Messi had the key to everything. He created several chances for Barcelona which if converted they could have won by at least 4-1. He played Suarez in who didn’t convert. He played Coutinho in who messed the finish. He played Alba through and the ball back to him struck off the post.

Lionel eventually got his reward though. He recovered the ball at the depths of the right wing and moved in towards the box. Atleti players were cautious in tackling him and he swept past them for the shot at goal. The rebound came right back to Messi and while almost 90% of the players would have shot again with the keeper struggling, Messi thought better of the angle and cut it back to Munir. The presence of mind from Leo gave Barca the equaliser.

Lionel lobbed the ball over to Rakitic in the 90th minute for the winner but Rakitic fluffed the finish. Even after his spectacular 35 minute display, Lionel bend down with hands on knees with a sense of defeat on the back of his mind. The Camp Nou faithful is lucky to have Messi, Barcelona is really resting on his shoulders. Although Nelson Semedo was Barcelona’s best player on the day. Messi was the most influential and that is what make Leo, the Messiah.