LIONEL MESSI FAILED to find the net once again on Wednesday as Barcelona crashed out of the Champions League to Atletico Madrid, with the Argentinian’s 452-minute goal drought his worst such run since April 2010.
Messi is searching for his 450th Barcelona goal as he looks to further etch his name into club folklore with another milestone, but he has been stuck on 449 since 16 March, when he netted the third in a 3-1 win over Arsenal.
Since then the Argentina star has failed to net in five successive matches, with Villarreal, Real Madrid, Real Sociedad and Atletico Madrid – twice – keeping him at bay.
The last time Messi endured such a run was April 2010, when he failed to score for 474 minutes across all competitions. Messi’s barren run is coinciding with a troubling time for Barcelona, with Wednesday’s 2-0 defeat seeing their Champions League title defence ended, while they have won only one of their last five in all competitions.
The 28-year-old is stuck on 22 league goals this season and looks to be on course for his lowest-scoring campaign domestically since 2008-09, when he netted 23. And Barca will be eager for him to find his mark again quickly, with Atletico now only three points behind in the La Liga title race with just six games remaining.
A huge drought = no goal in 5 games, 22 league goals = worst season in years Just shows we nearly take the level he has been playing at for granted the man is a machine
The “outside the box” panel on RTE last night speculated that Messi’s mind is in a tizzie as he has been caught up in the Panama Papers revelations in the last few weeks. You just don’t get technical analysis like that anywhere else.
Suarez is the centre forward so messi isnt gonna get over 50 again
I think he hasn’t made an assist either in those 5 games which would be the first time in his career he’s gone 5 games without a goal or assist. Again just shows how unbelievably talented he is if this is considered to be such a shock
He will be ok sleeping on his materess full of money he avoided paying tax on.
Might get a bit wet though cos the mattress is offshore
He wouldn’t have avoided paying tax on the mattress there would have been VAT applied by the shop
He didn’t look interested last night. For the majority of the game he was just walking around or standing at the top of the box. If it had been any other player, Luis Enrique would have taken him off.
sure that’s always been Messi’s style of play, strolls around the pitch when he hasn’t got the ball then bursts into action when he does. It’s worked pretty well up to now.
It’s karma for Barca after the whole Neymar and Suarez transfer fiascos.. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth when you watch them these days after you read they paid over 100 million for Naymar which included dodgy backhanders and brown envelopes Charlie Haughley would have been proud of.. Then they were banned from transfers which was suspended so they could sign Suarez… Football has become a joke, that’s why it’s great teams like Atletico and Leicester City are putting it up to the big boys
He is a great player but will never outclass Didier Drogba
Maradonna, Pele, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zidane, Cryuff, etc. . . maybe (to some). But Drogba. . . hahahaha!
Bye bye Barca! Make way for entertaining semis
Leaving barca in the summer.
City bound with pep!!!stranger things have happened!