Messi injury spoils Barca’s return to the top Players, fans back coach Lopetegui
Argentine legend fractures his arm during the Catalans’ impressive 42 victory over title challengers Sevilla
BARCELONA: Lionel Messi scored and then went off injured as Barcelona beat Sevilla 4-2 on Saturday to move back to the top of La Liga.
Messi had to be substituted in the 26th minute at the Camp Nou after falling awkwardly on his right arm, but not before the Argentinian had doubled Barca’s lead with a curling left-footed finish. Philippe Coutinho had opened the scoring and Luis Suarez’s penalty, which he also earned, made sure of victory before a three-goal flurry in the final 11 minutes.
Pablo Sarabia and Luis Muriel twice reduced the deficit to two, either side of a sweeping volley from Ivan Rakitic.
Any joy at jumping above in-form Sevilla, however, was tarnished by the injury to Messi.
Messi was helped off the pitch by medical staff and, despite having his right arm heavily strapped while Barca played for nine minutes with 10 men, he finally trudged off down the tunnel. If the injury proves serious, the timing could hardly be worse, given Ernesto Valverde’s team face a difficult run of fixtures over the next month.
Even without Messi, they might be confident of seeing off Real Madrid, whose early-season dip has only deepened while Barcelona have sparked a rival.
Since drawing at home to Athletic Bilbao last month to make it three games without a win, they have blown Tottenham away at Wembley, taken a point away to Valencia and now eased past Sevilla, who came into the weekend top of the table.
Barca fans had chanted, “don’t touch the badge” before kick-off after president Josep Maria Bartomeu had announced earlier on Saturday that plans to change the club crest had been shelved.
They were soon celebrating a goal too as Coutinho bent a sumptuous right-footed shot into the far corner with only two minutes on the clock.
Messi doubled the advantage, racing clear on the counter-attack before jinking inside and curling into the bottom corner with his left foot. It was his last significant contribution.
THE INCIDENT
Just five minutes after scoring a spectacular goal to give Barcelona 2-0 lead, Messi collided with Sevilla midfielder Franco Vazquez and landed heavily on his right arm. The arm twisted at an awkward angle underneath his body weight as he fell to the pitch.
The fall left the Argentinian in utter discomfort.
After bandaging his arm on the touchline, Messi was substituted in the 26th minute by Ousmane Dembele.
MISSING IN ACTION
According to a statement released by Barcelona, Messi is set to miss three weeks of action after “a fracture of the radial bone in his right arm”.
Most notably, Messi is set to miss a tricky Champions League tie against an in-form Inter Milan and the season’s first El Clasico against Real Madrid at the Camp Nou this weekend.
GAMES HE MAY MISS
Inter Milan (home) in Champions League
Real Madrid (home) in La Liga
Cultural Leonesa (away) in Copa del Rey
Rayo Vallecano (away) in La Liga
Inter (away) in Champions League Ousmane Dembele was his replacement but Suarez took on the mantle, too quick to his own heavy touch and brought down by Sevilla goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik. Suarez buried the penalty. The game seemed up but Marc-andre ter Stegen had to make a brilliant double save to deny Sarabia and then Wissam Ben Yedder with his thigh.
Sarabia gave Sevilla hope with 11 minutes left, his shot deflecting off Clement Lenglet and in, but Rakitic ensured there was to be no late drama with a welltimed volley. Muriel added what proved only to be a consolation in injury time. Barcelona 4 Villarreal 1 Huesca 0 Eibar 1 Valencia 1 Celta 0 Sevilla 2 Atletico 1 Espanyol 2 Bilbao 1 Leganes 1 Alaves 1
LEADING THE CHARGE
Messi has been in sublime form this season and was just recently declared the La Liga Player of the Month. He has scored seven goals and provided four assists in eight starts so far.
He will be sorely missed during the El Clasico, in which he has scored 26 goals, against Real Madrid. Barcelona will have to find another source of inspiration this time in the absence of their talisman.
MESSI NUMBERS
All competitions
Matches
Goals
Assists
EUROPEAN SETBACK
More than on the domestic front, Messi had made it clear to the Camp Nou faithful that the Champions League was his prime target this year. And he has lived up to his promise so far, scoring five of Barcelona’s eight goals in Europe’s elite club competition.
Notably, the 32-year-old put in an inspirational performance to lead Barcelona to a 4-2 win over Tottenham at Wembley. Barcelona will certainly find it tough to break down Inter without their most influential player’s goals and creativity. “It's a significant loss, given who we're talking about.
We know what he can give to us, what it means to the opposition when
Leo's on our team. But we have to accept it and prepare to be without him.”
Ernesto Valverde, Barcelona manager
“There have been games when Messi hasn't played before and we've tried to play in the same way. Leo is fundamental, but that's what we will try: to maintain the same idea and move forward.”
Gerard Pique, Barcelona defender MADRID: Amid the sprawl of headlines calling for Julen Lopetegui to be sacked by Real Madrid on Sunday, Diario AS ran an online poll: who is more guilty, the coach or the club president?
Just over 80,000 replies were credited — almost 17,000 more than had attended the game the day before — and 86 per cent of them answered Florentino Perez. There were whistles after Madrid’s 2-1 loss to Levante on Saturday, their fourth defeat in five games and third in a row. There was a scattering of swinging white handkerchiefs too. But the atmosphere was marked more by deflation than disgust. At the end, as his players hunched on their knees, Lopetegui stood on the touchline, staring into space.
“Julen has the support of the entire team,” Sergio Ramos said. “We are with him to the death,” said Marcelo.
Lopetegui is on the brink — he may well not make the Clasico on Sunday — but there is a sense this “mega crisis”, as termed by Barcelona’s Mundo Deportivo, has been a long-time coming.
In July, days after Cristiano Ronaldo had left for Juventus, Perez defended his recruitment strategy, saying: “Madrid is strengthening its search for young players that will become the next great players of the sport.”
By the end of the summer, they had signed Vinicius, the 18-yearold striker from Flamengo, Alvaro Odriozola, a 22-year-old right back from Real Sociedad, and Mariano Diaz, who returned after a decent season with Lyon.
Only Thibaut Courtois could be considered a star, and he was joining a club that already had UEFA’S goalkeeper of the season.
Only one of the last six Madrid coaches to preside over three consecutive defeats was not sacked afterwards. That was Bernd Schuster, whose team had put their feet up after winning the title in 2008.
Marca’s headline ran ‘This Madrid is in ruins’ on Sunday, with the emphasis on ‘this’, while El Pais claim Perez has already decided on change after next weekend’s Clasico at Camp Nou.
For Lopetegui to call off the search, victory is surely essential at home to Viktoria Plzen in midweek. Then avoiding defeat to Barcelona could buy him a trio of theoretically kinder fixtures against Melilla in the Copa del Rey, Real Valladolid in the league and Plzen again.
Win those, and the outlook might look more rosy.
For now, though, that seems a long way off. Perez’s period of austerity is coming home to roost.