Hand La Liga title to Barcelona and other takeaways as Lionel Messi downs Atletico Madrid

Andy West 21:39 04/03/2018
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Lionel Messi conjured up his 600th career goal and even he has scored only a few more important as it could prove the strike that handed Barcelona the La Liga title.

    Messi’s free-kick – his third in as many games – handed Barca a 1-0 victory as Atletico Madrid struggled to gain a foothold in the game.

    Antoine Griezmann had scored seven goals in his last two games but he and Diego Simeone had no answer to a comprehensive Barca performance.

    Hand over the title now?

    For a couple of weeks it looked like we were poised for a serious title race, but that’s no longer the case and La Liga might as well give the title to Barcelona right now (instead of three months after the season finishes, as they usually do).

    This well-deserved victory leaves the leaders eight points ahead of Atletico, and the margin is effectively nine points taking into account Barca’s head to head advantage – the first tie-breaker in La Liga, rather than goal difference – over their nearest rivals.

    This result and the 1-1 draw between the teams in Madrid earlier in the season helps to give Barca an extremely commanding position, and the fact that Atletico still have to travel to Real Madrid as well as juggling their quest to win the Europa League – surely their priority for the season now? – makes it highly unlikely they’ll claim maximum points from the remainder of the campaign.

    Of course, nothing is impossible and there’s still a chance that Barca will suffer a late-season collapse to reignite the title race. But right now, that scenario looks extremely unlikely.

    Messi’s set-piece hat-trick

    Three games and three magnificent set-piece goals…just another week in the life of Lionel Messi.

    The first goal of Messi’s free-kick trio came last weekend against Girona, when he intelligently used the defensive wall’s collective jump to arrow a low shot into the bottom left corner.

    Then, at Las Palmas in midweek, he drove an unstoppable rising strike with the laces of his boots into the top left corner.

    And finally, to win this title showdown with Atletico, Messi exploded another missile into the top right corner, arcing beyond the despairing dive of Jan Oblak.

    Bottom left, top left, top right…which surely means he will complete the set by rifling one into the bottom right corner in his next game at Malaga next weekend?

    Interestingly, Messi made a point of following his passionate celebration for this goal by signalling to Marc-Andre ter Stegen with an appreciative thumbs up, suggesting the Barca keeper had played a part in plotting the positioning of his strike.

    Tactical battle won by Valverde

    This was an interesting game tactically, with both teams undertaking several positional and tactical changes over the course of the action.

    The first significant move was Ernesto Valverde’s decision to place Philippe Coutinho on the right of a forward three, but the former Liverpool man soon moved to the left of midfield after Andres Iniesta was injured.

    That brought Andre Gomes into the game on the right of the attack, but he also had a new position before the end, moving to the left of midfield as Valverde switched to a 4-4-2 with Paulinho on the right.

    Atletico played in a 4-4-2 throughout but with many different flavours, as Koke and Saul finished the game in the centre after starting in wide positions, while Antoine Griezmann ended up in an attacking left wing role having started alongside Diego Costa in the middle.

    Throughout the various tweaks, however, Barca were on top and in control, fully deserving the victory and showing again that Valverde knows just how to manage the flow of a game with the options at his disposal.

    Recommended