{"id":558428,"date":"2020-07-17T06:29:41","date_gmt":"2020-07-17T10:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=558428"},"modified":"2020-07-17T06:29:41","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T10:29:41","slug":"lionel-messi-criticises-barcelona-as-real-madrid-capture-la-liga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/07\/17\/lionel-messi-criticises-barcelona-as-real-madrid-capture-la-liga\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi criticises Barcelona as Real Madrid Capture La Liga"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/category\/la-liga\/barcelona\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Barcelona<\/a> lost 2-1 against <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/search\/osasuna\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Osasuna<\/a> last night, <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/d70ce98e\/Lionel-Messi?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lionel Messi<\/a> criticised the way the team has played since the season restarted.<\/p>\n<h2>Lionel Messi Criticises Barcelona as Real Madrid Capture La Liga<\/h2>\n<h3>Barcelona Are a Weak Team Says Lionel Messi<\/h3>\n<p>Messi equalised from a free-kick just after the hour mark after Barcelona had gone behind in the first half through <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/46e07328\/Jose-Arnaiz?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jose Arnaiz<\/a>. However, Barcelona couldn&#8217;t capitalise on the equaliser and, although they were down to ten men, Osasuna would get a winner in the fourth minute of injury time.<\/p>\n<p>This loss gave Real Madrid the opportunity to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2020\/07\/17\/real-madrid-crowned-2019-20-la-liga-champions\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">secure their 34th La Liga title<\/a> if they were to beat <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/search\/villareal\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Villareal<\/a> later on in the day. It was an opportunity that they took thanks to two goals from <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/70d74ece\/Karim-Benzema?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Karim Benzema<\/a> as they ran out 2-1 winners.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to Spanish TV after Osasuna&#8217;s shock victory, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/transfer-centre\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the Argentine said<\/a>: &#8220;We didn&#8217;t expect to finish in this way, but it sums up the year for us, we are a weak team who can be beaten with enough intensity and enthusiasm.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have lost a lot of points which we shouldn&#8217;t have done, we have been very inconsistent.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We need to be self-critical, starting with the players, but also across the entire club, we are Barcelona, and we are obliged to win every game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Leo <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Messi?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Messi<\/a>: \u275dWe need to have some self-criticism, all the way around. We are Bar\u00e7a and we must win every game, no matter which one it is.\u275e <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jVqtSvnzlg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/jVqtSvnzlg<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FCBarcelona\/status\/1283876560496480256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 16, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Barcelona&#8217;s Form Since the Restart<\/h3>\n<p>Before the season restarted, Barcelona led <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/category\/la-liga\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">La Liga<\/a> by two points; however, since the restart, they have looked flat. Draws against <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/search\/sevilla\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sevilla<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/search\/celta+vigo\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Celta Vigo<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/search\/atletico+madrid\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Atletico Madrid<\/a>, saw them slip down to second as &#8216;Los Blancos&#8217; moved into pole position. Yesterday&#8217;s loss was their first loss at home since November 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Real capitalised on these draws in a sensational way. They have picked up maximum points since the restart and have gone seven points clear at the top of La Liga.<\/p>\n<p>With Real Madrid being crowned La Liga champions for the first time in three years, Barcelona will now look towards the Champions League. A final against their Spanish rivals could be on the cards if both teams win their respective quarter and semi-finals.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"ic5jehxURUF8PjbjwUaAMw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1256563481\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'ic5jehxURUF8PjbjwUaAMw',sig:'mWefb3CZEsJn4xDmjEIxVzwmggSREzxzGPCHewjXpCg=',w:'594px',h:'383px',items:'1256563481',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After Barcelona lost 2-1 against Osasuna last night, Lionel Messi criticised the way the team has played since the season restarted. Lionel Messi Criticises Barcelona as Real Madrid Capture La Liga Barcelona Are a Weak Team Says Lionel Messi Messi equalised from a free-kick just after the hour mark after Barcelona had gone behind in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3510,"featured_media":558439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1365,6,1366],"tags":[464,142,41,883,182,3490,136],"class_list":["post-558428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-barcelona","category-la-liga","category-real-madrid","tag-barcelona","tag-la-liga","tag-lionel-messi","tag-osasuna","tag-real-madrid","tag-villareal","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Matt Lee","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3510"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}