Christiano Ronaldo may have just been crowned Player of the Year but in the latest Barcelona derby against Espanyol, Lionel Messi proved that, in Catalonia at least, there's only one footballing wizar
ADVERTISEMENTIn this edition of The Corner we travel to Barcelona, where this Sunday the city derby was the talk of the town. Barça and Espanyol faced each other at the Camp Nou, with the game ending up an exhibition of one specific football player’s skills. Can you guess about who are we talking about?
Making a Messi of Espanyol
Yes, it was that man again, Lionel Messi. Just days after losing his best player in the world crown to Christiano Ronaldo the diminutive Argentine went on the rampage against Barcelona’s city rivals to show why he should never be written off.
He made two deadly runs into Espanyol’s box leading to goals for Luis Suarez and Jordi Alba, and then scored a late goal himself; all this against a team with La Liga’s best defensive record, letting in just one goal in the last six games. Well, they shipped four here.
Real Madrid may top the league, but on this showing Barcelona showed they can still make the heart beat faster.
Up&Down
Today in Up&Down, we talk about top scorers, goal-scoaring droughts and unbeaten records.
UP is Luis Suárez. Barcelona’s striker now has 67 La Liga goals making him the third-most prolific Uruguayan scorer behind Forlán with 128 and Pandiani , with 82.
But DOWN is teammate Neymar, who has not scored in almost two months, last finding the net against Manchester City in 19th October.
Also DOWN are Espanyol, who before this thumping defeat had been unbeaten for 9 matches, since 25th September.
There’s only one Messi
As we’ve seen Lionel Messi sets his own standards and can light up a game on his own. That’s certainly how the Spanish media eulogises him.
In Sport, possibly on a festive note Messi was simply “the Messiah”.
For Mundo Deportivo it was a question of “Genio y Figura”, or genius and stature,
while El Periódico saw Messi as a great entertainer and artist, composing a “Concierto de Messi”.
We might be wrong
There are still some matches to play before the traditional Christmas break in most of the European leagues, so here are almost our last predictions for 2016. As always, you can join us using the hashtag #thecornerscores.
Germany:
Bayern Munich 3 – 2 RasenBallsport Leipzig
Italy:
Inter 1- 1 Lazio
France:
Bordeaux 1 – 2 Nice
ADVERTISEMENTCutting boxes clever
That’s all for this edition. We say goodbye with some Christmas spirit. Daniel Cutting, a famous freestyler shows you don’t need a ball to pull some Christmas moves. Let’s just hope there’s nothing fragile under the fancy wrapping. Happy Christmas, and see you soon!