Messi hurt as Barca ease to victory
A muscle tear in his left leg will keep the Argentinian out for at least a month and six matches. Five of them are games Barca ought to win, although their away record has been patchy, but El Clásico is of course the one that matters.
“It’s the worst thing that could have happened to us,” commented the club’s director of sport Txiki Begiristain. “He’s a player who destabilises the opposition and he’s in form.”
Not that Barcelona lack attacking options — they can boast the prowess of the youngsters Giovanni dos Santos and Bojan Krkic — while the return of Samuel Eto’o, back in favour after injury, also gives them a cutting edge which they have sometimes lacked.
Two goals in the first 26 minutes on Saturday ensured his team’s second away victory of the season — the first having also been in Valencia, against the city’s other team Levante, fully 10 weeks ago.
Messi’s injury aside it was the best possible match for Barcelona before taking on the champions, a relaxed win sealed by Eidur Gudjohnsen on the hour.
But Real continue to set the pace. Goals from the former Manchester United striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Wesley Sneijder gave them a routine 2-0 win against Osasuna last night.
With the four-point lead over Barcelona restored they are thus assured of top spot whatever the outcome of next week’s eagerly-awaited showdown.
Valencia now seem to be a shadow of the side they were at the start of the season — struggling in the league, and out of Europe after a dmisal showing in the Champions League group stage.
Their last goal in all competitions was at the end of October — and that was in a 5-1 home defeat to Real Madrid. Six league games without a goal is the worst run in the club’s history — and they also failed to score in their three Champions League matches over the same period.
The club’s increasingly beleaguered Dutch coach Ronald Koeman, recruited from Ajax to somehow engineer a revival, blames a crisis of confidence in the team rather than his tactics or approach to games, and midfielder David Albelda agrees.
“Players are frightened to receive the ball at the moment, he said. “You stop to think and everything looks bad. You get to believe that you’re finished.”
The two-week winter break probably can’t come soon enough for Koeman, with a long injury list and two of Valencia’s next three matches being decidedly difficult away fixture against Zaragoza and Atletico Madrid.
One comfort perhaps is that Sevilla — Valencia’s rivals to crack the Barcelona-Madrid domination of La Liga — are still struggling for points, failing to score against Valladolid yesterday, and five points behind in eighth place.
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