When Leo Messi scores four goals, he gets to keep the ball. Well, it is an unspoken tradition in football that players who score more than three goals are presented with the match ball at the end of the game anyway, but Messi probably has 5,000 of these in his attic already. Might as well add one more to the collection for Baby Thiago, hermano!
Anyway, Messi’s goals in Barcelona’s 5-1 rout of Osasuna last night basically cemented his role as Football King of The World (bring on the gold crown already, ya’ll!) and increased his La Liga tally to a total of 202 goals in 235 games. He is also officially the youngest player to cross the 200 goal mark after Basque forward and Athletic Bilbao legend, Telmo Zarra, last reached that tally at the age of 29. Well, well, it’s just another case of a legend handing the baton to another!
Speaking of Athletic Bilbao, they basically yelled “We don’t need Fernando Llorente!” to the Spanish critics last night with a resounding 3-0 win over Atletico Madrid. The goals came from Mikel San Jose, Markel Susaeta and Oscar de Marcos and the match was largely a result of Atletico Madrid leaving huge gaps in midfield, allowing opportunities for Bilbao to counterattack (a favourite of Bielsa!)
Falcao…. who?
Not one to be outdone by Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick for Real Madridin their 4-0 win over Getafe. Of course, everybody had been talking about the growing Player-Coach rift at the club and a report in ‘Marca’ stating that Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos had both “threatened to leave unless coach Jose Mourinho was dismissed”. It is quite apparent that Mourinho has been trying to mess with the conventional structure at Madrid and trying to challenge Florentino Perez’s policies, etc, but two captains walking out on the team? Unthinkable!
Anyway, Ronaldo got the critics talking about the football again – and really, that’s all that matters for now, ahead of their Champions League encounter against Man United in a few weeks!
The music was thumping, Insúa was busting out some crazy dance moves (they were not bad, actually) and a flustered Falcao needed to be followed around by four security guards. “El tiempo para fieeesta!!” is the best phrase to describe the mood ...
It’s going to be La Furia de Madrid – literally, and figuratively – tonight as Real and Atletico battle it out to become Copa del Rey champions at Santiago Bernabeu.
With Barcelona picking up the league title over the weekend, Los ...
