Barca feel the pain of injured Messi
WITH A DRAW AGAINST ATLETICO, BARCELONA’S WOES ARE COMPOUNDED WITHOUT STRIKER
Perhaps a minute elapsed between Lionel Messi’s trudging off the field as he dejectedly clutched his left thigh and Angel Correa’s joyously clenching his fist as he celebrated the goal that gave Atletico Madrid a point at Barcelona. Those 60 seconds may prove the most significant of the entire Spanish league season.
Before that minute, Barcelona was cruising. Real Madrid, the league leader, had been held to a 1-1 draw by Villarreal earlier on Wednesday. Victory against Atletico would have taken Barcelona to within a point of its rivals at the summit of the league, with the momentum swinging very much in Barcelona’s favour.
But after that minute, everything felt different. Atletico and Barcelona drew, 1-1, which meant that Real Madrid, its mistake unpunished, had won. Barcelona remained three points back and will now be without Messi for at least three weeks because of a groin strain, as the team announced after the game.
Less formidable
An absence of that length will be bearable. If it stretches any longer — a few weeks, a few months — Catalan nerves will start to fray, even with Neymar, Luis Suarez and Andres Iniesta around.
That is not simply because, without Messi, Barcelona is just a little less formidable. There is another factor, too, that made those 60 seconds between his injury and Correa’s goal seem so seismic.
The standings at the top of La Liga, more than any other elite league in Europe, depend on the finest of margins. In the cashsoaked mayhem of England’s Premier League, contenders for championships can take solace after any stumble knowing that their rivals will have their low moments, too. The competition’s upwardly mobile middle classes increasingly guarantee that.
In Italy, Germany and France, the financial advantage enjoyed by Juventus, Bayern Munich and Paris St.-Germain means those three teams can absorb the occasional setback: To take advantage, after all, their closest competitors have to reach a sustained perfection that has proved, in recent years, entirely beyond them. Juventus effectively gave Napoli a five-match head start last year and still claimed the Serie A title comfortably. Spain’s all-powerful triumvirate of Barcelona, Atletico and Real Madrid, by contrast, knows each and every slip could carry a heavy price, so assured is their superiority and so vast are their point tallies.
Barcelona and Atletico have already had theirs: Barcelona lost at home to lowly Alaves last week, and Atletico started the season with two disappointing ties, against Leganes and Alaves.
Even five games into the season, there was a sense that Barcelona, in particular, could not afford another miscue. The players felt it — Iniesta suggested last week, after that reverse against Alaves, that there was no more room for error — and the fans did, too.