Apoel vs. Barcelona: Lessons Learned from Champions League Game
Lionel Messi broke yet another record as Barcelona cruised past Apoel Nicosia in Cyprus, where a 4-0 victory kept alive their hopes of finishing top of Champions League Group F.
Just three days after becoming La Liga's record scorer, Messi scored a hat-trick to move on to 74 Champions League goals, according to the Daily Mail, the most in the history of the competition.
Luis Suarez had opened the scoring with his first goal for Barca on a night which saw red cards for the Catalans' youngster, Rafinha, and home defender Guilherme, both with the score at 3-0.
It was an evening which belonged to Messi though, and here are some conclusions from it.
1 Record a Week Isn’t Enough for Lionel Messi
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For pretty much every other footballer there’s ever been, becoming the record goalscorer in the top division of the country you play your football in would be the highlight of your week, but not Lionel Messi.
The Argentinean’s first goal here—a somewhat scruffy deflection of a Rafinha effort—was his 72nd in Champions League football, but he wasn’t content with that either.
Two more take him further ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo on 74 strikes, and while it is so easy to get bogged down in these astronomical numbers when you are talking about the great man, you really have to think that one day he’ll reach 100 goals in European football’s premier competition.
On this form, that will come sooner rather than later too.
Luis Suarez Will Thrive When Played Centrally
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Were it not for Messi’s achievement then this game would chiefly be remembered for Suarez’s first Barcelona goal; a typically stylish piece of play which involved him first turning away from a defender and then almost effortlessly curling a shot into the corner of the net.
This was peak Suarez—scoring the type of goal we saw him net again and again for Liverpool last season, when he displayed the prolific form which earned him this move.
It was evident from the very beginning that the Uruguayan was playing both ahead and to the left of Messi, who was brilliant when stationed coming from the right in the first half.
This performance should have convinced Luis Enrique that this is the best option for Barcelona in the weeks and months ahead. OK, the opposition has to be taken into account, but this was one of the most convincing Barca displays of the season.
Messi Will Shine When Played Anywhere
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And it is because of Suarez’s performance that Luis Enrique must be giving serious consideration to playing Messi a little wider in the more meaningful games, starting with a La Liga trip to Valencia on Sunday.
While stationed deeper, Messi was still typically brilliant. In the first half he laid on chances which Suarez and Jordi Alba really should have taken before he then typically took up more and more threatening positions as Barca sought to find the goals that their control of the game deserved.
As he proved, not being the main central forward didn’t lessen Messi’s goal threat one bit, and it might be that with Suarez and of course Neymar around we could end up seeing him take up these sort of positions the older he gets.
No one is suggesting that he needs to start thinking about the later years of his career just yet, of course, but you begin to see his potential future as a playmaker on nights like this.
He was both that and a lethal goalscorer here—just the latest example of his genius.
Rafinha Provides the 1 Negative for Luis Enrique
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Given his chance as Luis Enrique left out Neymar and the injured Andres Iniesta here, Rafinha turned in a decent display ahead of Javier Mascherano and Ivan Rakitic in midfield only to completely blot his copybook with his red card in the 70th minute.
The 21-year-old will learn from such an indiscretion, of course, and it is to be hoped that Enrique isn’t too harsh on him given that the sending off didn’t affect the outcome at all.
It is moments like his foolish second booking that the better players avoid, though, and he’ll consider Tuesday night as a lesson learned as he bids to cement a place at one of the elite clubs in the world.
It’s All Set Up for a Cracker on Matchday 6
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At 1-1 in the 79th minute at home to Ajax, Paris Saint-Germain looked as though they were going to concede control of the group to Barcelona ahead of their visit on Matchday 6.
Then Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani struck to deliver a 3-1 victory, a result which keeps Laurent Blanc’s men a point ahead of Barca going into the final game of the group at the Nou Camp in two weeks.
Hold on to your hats for that one.
