Full-time: Barcelona 5-1 Sevilla
Five goals and five stars for Barcelona. But one star shone brighter than the rest and we all know who that is. With his hat-trick tonight Messi is now the all-time leading scorer in La Liga. At the age of 27 – yes, twenty bloody seven! – that is something just astonishing. Thanks for all the tweets, comments and emails and enjoy the rest of your Saturday. Bye!
89 mins Another corner to the away side. This time on the right. Deulofeu does it but it comes to nothing bar a Barça counter led by the ling strides of Pique. That too comes to nothing.
87 mins Sevilla get a corner. Over it goes and out comes Bravo. The keeper misses it by a country mile and then some but lucky for him it peters out of play.
86 mins More Messi magic. In the tightest of spaces on the edge of the area, he somehow dances past a handful of Sevilla defenders before being rough-housed off the ball.
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84 mins Aspas comes on from Bacca. For all the good that will do.
82 mins A corner to Barcelona but not before Adriano replaces Alba. With that done, the corner is taken short and worked to the right-hand side. Pique – I think – tries to pump one into the box but Sevilla deal with it easily enough.
80 mins A Messi map.
MESSI'S MAP | Where did Messi score his 252 goals in La Liga? pic.twitter.com/ugblFcOryN
— MESSISTATS (@MessiStats) November 22, 2014
Messi gets the ball on the corner of the box on the left. He hops and skips inside weaving his way around a few Sevilla on the edge of the box. He uses Neymar as a wall and once he collects the pass from the Brazilian he takes a touch with one foot and curls the ball into the bottom corner of the net with the other. Wow! Just wow!
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GOAL!!! Barcelona 5-1 Sevilla (Messi)
Who else?
76 mins Some subs for Barca. Pedro on for Suarez and Xavi makes way for Rafinha.
The players gather Messi and throw him up in the air. The crowd go wild. He deserves it all and more. This one came from a counter that Messi himself spearheaded. He got the ball in the center circle and bombed his way towards the Sevilla goal. On the edge of the area he slid a pass into the feet of Neymar. The Brazilian crept towards the goal before putting a pass across the goal that Messi poked in at the back post. Not as good as the first one but they all count.
Picture: Tribute teammates to Liga topscorer pic.twitter.com/GFNCUUvxvz
— barcastuff (@barcastuff) November 22, 2014
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GOAL!!! Barcelona 4-1 Sevilla (Messi)
Record! Broken!
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69 mins Speaking of Suarez, he just played a delightful, dinked one-two with Alba that set the defender free in the box. Unfortunately, Alba’s shot was more dangerous for the corner flag than the back of the net.
68 mins Not bad, eh?
No goals, but 4 assists in 4 games for Suarez so far as a Barca player
— Kieran Canning (@KieranCanning) November 22, 2014
This is a very nice goal. A long ball from Pique on the half-way line finds Suarez. He scampers his way down the right and into the box. He could hit an early cross but he holds onto the ball and waits a moment or two before chipping it to the back post. There it finds the head of Rakitic and despite Beto getting a hand to it there is nothing that he can do to stop it. Rakitic does the non-celebration celebration.
GOAL!!! Barcelona 3-1 Sevilla (Rakitic)
Game done changed .
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64 mins Mathieu gives away the ball too easily just outside his box. Benega now has it. He sees Deulofeu free on the right and finds him. Deulofeu should hit a first-time ball to Bacca, who was waiting for the ball in the box, but he dawdles and drags the ball back. Barça clear the danger but at the cost of a corner. A corner that comes to nothing.
61 mins Some changes for Sevilla. Off comes Suarez and Vidal and on come Gameiro and Deulofeu. Krychowiak, meanwhile, has just put a poor shot the wrong side of the Barcelona post.
60 mins “They are still employing Ray Hudson to announce soccer matches to us here in the U.S,” informs J.R. in Illinois. “Here is a sampling of words that came out of his mouth after Neymar’s goal:
- “Chameleon eyes” (that’s his nickname for Xavi)
- “He needs help like a shark needs a dentist.”
- “He could pick dandruff off a fly’s wing.”
- “Disco time for the samba boys.”
57 mins Mathieu takes out Bacca, who was going nowhere fast, on the sideline and gets his name put in the naughty book. Just saw a replay of the goal, looked a bit like Neymar pushed his way into the right position.
54 mins Twitter tells me that Alba is the first Barcelona player to score an own goal in the Liga and in the Camp Nou since Kluivert in May 2003. That can’t be right, can it?
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Right from the restart, Barça attacked Sevilla and won a free-kick about 25 yards out. Xavi and Rakitic did a one-two thing before the Spaniard sent it curling into the box. Neymar skipped in front of his marker – Vidal – and headed the ball down and into the bottom corner of the net leaving Beto with no chance.
GOAL!!! Barcelona 2-1 Sevilla (Neymar)
Game off again.
What a start for Sevilla! Vitolo picked the ball up on the left. He had a bit of time and he skipped past Pique with a worrying amount of ease – isn’t Pique meant to be one of the best defenders in the world? Vitolo headed for the end line and put the ball across the box. Suarez distracted Bravo and the ball bounced past both of them and off the knee of Alba and into the net. Game on.
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GOAL!!! Barcelona 1-1 Sevilla (Alba OG)
Deary me.
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46 mins “The Sevilla keeper Beto is a pure doppelganger for Jean Reno, at least as he was say twenty years ago in Ronin and Léon: The Professional” says Charles Antaki correctly. “Less of a good omen for Sevilla is that he was also in Mission: Impossible.”
45 mins Back we are. No subs to tell you about just yet. Let’s see if Sevilla can get a shot on and/or off goal this half.
Half-time: Barcelona 1-0 Sevilla
That’s your lot for now. Back in a few minutes.
44 mins A sensational over-the-top pass from Messi – who was located inside the centre circle – catches the Sevilla defence napping and finds the marauding run of Alba down the left. He takes the ball down with a nice touch and pokes it under Beto but his shot is not strong enough to make it over the line and out it goes for a corner. From that Neymar has a good chance from 10 yards out but Beto’s legs get in the way.
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42 mins A brilliant turn from Suarez as he tries to set up Messi. One Sevilla defender gets in the way and Barcelona have a corner. It comes to nada.
41 mins Carriço and Messi sprint for the ball. The Argentine gets their first and pokes it on. Carriço comes late and takes Messi out of it but the referee lets him away with it. Messi throws his toys out of the pram – and well he should for it was a foul – but it is to no avail.
39 mins “Don’t know about a Barca crisis,” reckons Simon McMahon, “but watching Steve Backshall dance a jive dressed as a quarterback has put the rest of my Saturday night in jeopardy. Reckon the whisky could be out early ...”
37 mins ... Xavi it is who takes the free. He curls it into the welcoming hands of Beto.
35 mins Coke takes a tug on Rakitic’s shirt inside the box. Rakitic finds the ground. The Sevilla man is lucky to get away with that. Speaking of Coke, he has just grabbed onto Neymar’s shirt and tackled him from behind. Silly, silly boy. He gets a yellow card and Barça get a free-kick wide on the left ...
33 mins Diogo rampages down the left-hand side and finds himself in the Barcelona box. He cuts the ball back right into the zone of danger but there is ner a one Sevilla player in there to latch onto it and lash it into the back of the net. Silly boys. That was a good chance to level proceedings.
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31 mins Alves is fouled near the corner flag on the right. Xavi takes and fires it into the box but Sevilla rise and head the ball clear. Pique tries to keep the pressure on but it is to no avail. Moments later, Alves is fouled yet again. Barça play this one short and return to their passing rhythm.
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29 mins What were you doing aged 27?
Aged 27, Lionel Messi is the player with most goals ever in the Liga (with Zarra) ànd most goals ever in the Champions League (with Raul)
— barcastuff (@barcastuff) November 22, 2014
28 mins Corner to Sevilla from the left. Suarez takes and Pique clears.
26 mins Speaking of Bacca, he has just spearheaded a swift Sevilla counterattack. That came to an end with a superb tackle from Mathieu on said striker just inside the Barça box. Bacca wanted a penalty as the ball appeared to strike the defender’s hand but replays show, like Wilco said, that it was just wishful thinking.
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24 mins Barcelona keep on attacking despite Bacca’s best attempts to hack down the entire team.
Despite the wall and despite the keeper being on that side that the ball was coming to, Messi curls it into the top corner with his left foot and the utmost precision. That was absolutely sensational from the Argentine. “Mes-si! Mes-si Mes-si,” cry the crowd. They are going to miss him when he transfers to Bray Wanderers.
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GOAL!!! Barcelona 1-0 Sevilla (Messi)
... and that is the record equalled!
251 - Lionel Messi ha igualado a Telmo Zarra como el máximo goleador en la historia de la Liga. Histórico. pic.twitter.com/0jkfKJTbEd
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) November 22, 2014
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19 mins Barcelona work their magic down the right but have little luck. They try the other side. Less luck there. Back to the right and back to Messi. He finds Neymar on the edge of the box but Sevilla clear momentarily. The ball comes back to Messi and as he turns to run at goal before Banega hacks him down. The free-kick is right on the edge of the D ...
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17 mins Messi tries to do one on his own. Krychowiak stops him from doing so. Messi thinks the midfielder’s tactics were of the illegal kind but the referee just waves play on. Messi puts his hands on his hips and looks down, proving once again he would be prefect for a shoe-gazing band.
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15 mins “Evening Ian,” cheers John Mc Enerney. “Ossie could be right but it is to be expected with all the changes of personnel in key positions & a new coach, it’s still early doors & FCB have enough experience & quality to get through a mini crisis if it does happen. It’s plain to see Messi is not at his best right now (but he’s still streets ahead of most) because of fatigue & off the field issues but he’ll bounce back. RM will go through a lean spell at some stage so it’s too early to write FCB off as I said they have plenty of experience & quality they’ll be in mix for La Liga but not the CL!”
13 mins Meanwhile down the other end, some neat play puts Neymar in a good position to shoot from the edge of the area but a great block from Vidal ensures that the shot does not get within sniffing distance of Beto’s goal.
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12 mins Sevilla get some rare time in the Barcelona half before being forced back into their own one. But back they come. Banega sets Coke free down the right and he pops the ball into Vidal on the edge of the box. He, in turn, attempts to set Suarez free but Suarez failed to make the right run.
9 mins Messi had a shot on goal. The noise in the stadium went up to 11. Beto saved it. The noise went back down to 3.
8 mins Krychowiak slides in on Messi and is as late as a London bus. The referee plays advantage but Barça fail to do anything with it. The challenge, we should mention, was just inches outside the box and the Sevilla man was lucky not to give away a penalty.
6 mins Barcelona get into their pass, pass, pass rhythm. Sevilla locate their backs alongside the wall and eventually give away a free-kick. It is taken short and Messi tries to slide Neymar in but Pareja – I think– reads the pass well and cuts out the pass.
4 mins A long kick from Beto is won by Sevilla and they work their way down the right. Suarez looks to set a team-mate free in the box but Pique snuffs out the danger. Barça counter with Suarez but Sevilla push them back.
2 mins You should be warned, my screen is as blurry as the vision of a groom-to-be on his stag night and there could be a mistaken call or two over the next 90 minutes or so. And yes, IT were rang and yes they were as helpful as a glass of fire to a thirsty man in the desert. No action on the pitch to tell you about just yet. Hence the rant.
1 min Off we go then. The home side start off playing right to left and it is they who get us going. By the way, Ardiles says he saw Messi last week and reckons some major things are not right. El plot thickens.
Osvaldo Ardiles reckons that if they do not win today, Barcelona are in crisis. Is he right?
Out comes the Barcelona hymn from the speakers – is hymn the right word? – and out come the players from the tunnel. The home are draped from head to toe in their usual home number while the away side are decked in white jerseys, white shorts and red socks. Fancy a game of bingo by the way?
#MESSIBINGO! Messi still has not scored in the 1st, 2nd, 14th, 46th and 69th minute during his career #messi251 pic.twitter.com/LnAsPDosOe
— MESSISTATS (@MessiStats) November 22, 2014
As for the other side. They are doing pretty well right about now given that they are four nil up on Eibar with just seconds to go.
Goals scored by Real Madrid in their last 9 league games: 4(so far), 5, 4, 3, 5, 5, 2, 5, 8. Bonkers.
— Sid Lowe (@sidlowe) November 22, 2014
Some video to keep us entertained for a moment or two:
The teams
So Piqué is back. That is rather interesting given the recent chatter about him and his relationship with his manager. He lines up alongside Mathieu as Mascherano is given the night off. There are three changes to the Sevilla side that could only eek out a draw with Levante with Pareja, Figueiras and Vidal all restored to the starting line-up. Denis Suarez starts against his parent club but Deulofeu disappointingly does not. Those teams in full then are:
Barcelona: Bravo, Alves, Piqué, Mathieu, Alba, Xavi, Busquets, Rakitic, Suárez, Messi, Neymar. Subs: Ter Stegen, Bartra, Adriano, Sergi Roberto, Rafinha, Pedro, Munir.
Sevilla: Beto, Coke, Pareja, Carriço, Diogo, Banega, Krychowiak, Vidal, Denis, Vitolo, Bacca. Subs: Rico, Gameiro, Reyes, Aspas, Kolodziejczak, Deulofeu, Mbia.
Referee: Clos Gomez.
And a fancy graphic:
Once del #SevillaFC ante el @FCBarcelona #vamosmisevilla #FCBSevillaFC pic.twitter.com/b4FUlylT5p
— Sevilla Fútbol Club (@SevillaFC) November 22, 2014
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What’s a lollipop without the Good Ship? What’s S&M if you don’t have chains? What’s a con artist if he doesn’t have brains? What’s America without greed and glamour? What’s an MC if he doesn’t have stamina? What’s music factory without Mr. Walt? What’s Trugoy without a phrase called talk? And what, more pertinently to this minute-by-minute report, is Barcelona without Leo Messi?
“Things can change a lot in soccer. While I have always said I would like to stay there [at Barça] forever, sometimes things do not work out the way you would like.” His words. Nothing misquoted there. Eeeeeeep! That must be a scary thought for fans of the Blaugrana no? That one day Messi – their Messi, their magician, their messiah and, with all due respect to Johan Cruyff, Ronaldinho and Alexander Hleb, their greatest player of all time – will be gone. And we are not talking about the future future – the one involving rings and sleepless nights and nappies and which your respective better half keeps nattering on about while you are trying to watch the quarter-finals of MasterChef – we are talking about the oh-too-soon future. There could be a moment within the next few months, maybe even a year or so, when those fans will be sitting there unable to get him off my mind, trying their best to be a man/woman and be strong, driving themselves insane wishing they could see his face but the truth will remain, he’ll gone. And what then, eh?
While that is a future worry, Sevilla is current worry. Los Nervionenses had quite the start to the season. They won four of their opening five games and drew the other as they rose to second in the table. A hammering at the hands of Atlético Madrid brought them crashing back down before three more wins saw them rise once more. A defeat to Bilbao and a draw with Levante has since left them in fifth (on goal difference) on 23 points, just two behind Barça. That’s a 10-point and six place improvement on last season. In that form and with two players who have a point to prove in Gerard Deulofeu and Denis Suarez, pushovers they won’t be and there was some nice fighting talk from Nicolás Pareja when quizzed about his side’s chances: “if I didn’t think that we could win, I would just stay home. We believe that we can do it.” History ain’t with them though. Sevilla have lost nine of their last 10 league games at the Camp Nou and Messi has 9 goals in eight games against them at home.
There we are, back to Messi again. That Telmo Zarra record still stands. 251, quite a few of which Zarra claimed with his noggin. (“Marvel at the best head in Europe after Churchill,” cried an advertisement for a match between Spain and Sweden in Stockholm.) Messi is going to overtake that record, of that there is no doubt, but what happens after that? He has won everything, he will soon have one of the greatest records in La Liga history and he has earned enough money to bring us all on a day trip to Disneyland and buy us as much candy floss as we want. But is he happy in his “current situation” (as Barcelona have been calling it)? “I see him happy and content to be playing here,” assuaged Javier Mascherano ahead of this game. But he has to say that and we will have to just wait and see. (That tax thing could be interesting.) Before all that though, there will be team news and 90 minutes of football to get down and funky with. Stayed tuned for that.
Kick-off: 7pm
