When Lionel Messi goes down injured, the world stops. At the start of Barcelona v Sevilla, we knew the winner would go top of the table. When the day began, we knew Alaves were top of the league and when the game began we knew Real Madrid had somehow lost at home to Levante. But all of that goes out of the window when the world’s best player fractures his arm.
La Liga Weekend: Lionel Messi to Miss El Clasico
Barcelona v Sevilla
The game had been the dream start for Barcelona. After a few questions leading up to this game, they were 2-0 up within 15 minutes. A wonderful ball from Messi found Philippe Coutinho for one of his trademark curlers into the back of the net. Then, on the break, Luis Suarez played a beautiful release ball to Messi who curved another shot into the bottom corner – they were flying.
Then, in the 24th minute, Messi was upended in a challenge, with only his right arm available to break his fall. When his right arm hit the ground, all of his weight upon it, it snapped, and down he went, riving in pain. And the Camp Nou fell silent. Messi gets tackled all the time but he never gets hurt – he’s only had one major injury in his whole career. And he was in serious pain, something not many people have seen before.
Everyone watching feared the worst. Immediately, we could see he at least still had control, it wasn’t a clean break. For a moment it looked like he would go back into the game, but rightfully he was taken off. A few hours later, after some tests and an incredible amount of speculation, Barcelona announced Messi had fractured his radial bone and would be out for at least three weeks.
Being out for three weeks, while being better than we all initially thought, means he will miss El Clasico next weekend. The biggest game in world football will be played without its biggest stars, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, for the first time since 2007. But before we get to that, there was still a match to finish against Sevilla.
Back to the Game
Ousmane Dembele came onto the field for Messi and, while his initial dribbling looked positive, boy did he lose the ball a lot. He wasn’t the only struggler in this game, though. Ivan Rakitic and Sergio Busquets were getting overrun in midfield and Gerard Pique and Clement Lenglet were constantly defending crosses from Sevilla’s wingbacks.
In honesty, it was Sevilla who were the better side after Messi went off. Barcelona managed to get two goals, one penalty and one Rakitic volley, that gave them the 4-2 win but frankly, Sevilla ran into a German Wall. Marc-Andre Ter Stegen had the best goalkeeping performance of the season so far, making two world-class double saves, including an outstanding flying stop. Those saves allowed Barcelona to hang on and go top of the league.
Even though Barcelona will be Messi-less for three weeks, it’s still better than how things are going at Real Madrid. When Levante came to the Bernabeu, nobody thought they would have a real opportunity to even get one point. Most fans probably thought Madrid could use this game and a midweek Champions League game as a springboard board into El Clasico – they were they wrong.
Real Madrid v Levante
It was clear that Julen Lopetegui’s men were in trouble from the start when, after seven minutes, Jose Luis Morales had already given Levante a 1-0 lead. Then Raphael Varane handled the ball in the box and Roger Marti scored the penalty, giving Levante a 2-0 lead. It was chaos at the Bernabeu.
And let’s keep in mind that, going into this game, Real Madrid hadn’t scored in over six hours. That number continued to climb until the 72nd minute, making it the longest scoreless streak in club history; over seven HOURS long. They had plenty of chances to score a second or third even in this game but another goalkeeper came to the rescue.
Oier Olazabal decided that he was going to channel his inner Iker Casillas in this game. The Catalan born ex-Barcelona keeper made ELEVEN saves against Madrid. It was one fabolous save after another but the crown jewel was a lovely flying stop against a Gareth Bale free-kick. He ensured that Levante walked away with all three points.
Lopetegui’s Fate
But after the game, everyone’s eyes turned to Julen Lopetegui and Florentino Perez. According to Spanish Radio, Perez told Lopetegui that he is safe at least until the Champions League game midweek against Viktoria Plzen. Failure to get three points in that game would probably mean he gets the axe before Sunday’s Clasico.
But failure to win the Clasico on Sunday would assure his fate. His team are playing awful football, struggling to score and struggling to defend. A loss against a Barcelona team without Lionel Messi would pack his bags for him.
Main Photo
