Barcelona pulled off a three nil victory at home to Malaga yesterday, to return to the summit of La Liga. It is very much a three horse race now, with Barca holding the slenderest of leads.
It has been a turbulent week for Barcelona following the resignation of club president Sandro Rossell. Rossell is strenuously fighting allegations that he profited from the signing of Neymar, but the club will be glad to be concentrating on passing on the field rather than passing the buck.
Messi, as always, was the architect of the win. His dazzling dribbles caught Malaga out time after time, and he set up Pedro for the 55th minute goal that gave Barca a two goal lead and effectively finished the game. He also started the move that saw Alexis Sanchez grab Barca’s third on 61 minutes.
The first goal came from Gerard Pique, his second in two games. The Malaga defence was nowhere to be seen as he controlled the ball from a Xavi corner before hitting into the net. Pique had previously gone 11 months without scoring.
A similar drought is affecting Messi. He has now gone 120 days without a Liga goal. For a large period of that time he was out with a hamstring injury but the Argentine wizard will be looking to get back on the scoresheet as soon as possible.
