Barça News
Papers: Messi leads Barcelona to victory
On today’s newspaper covers, Sport and Mundo Deportivo are going with Lionel Messi as the key to Barcelona’s victory last night.
On today’s newspaper covers, both Sport and Mundo Deportivo are celebrating the ‘leader’ as Lionel Messi leads Barcelona to another victory in LaLiga.
And with the Argentine’s new celebration following his successful penalty kick, it doesn’t surprise that both outlets went with practically the same cover photo – Messi in a victorious stance.
Sport also emphasise that the Azulgranas have returned to their fortress with a bang and a new victory over Leganés as both the Argentine and the young Ansu Fati were on the scoresheet.
Mundo Deportivo have very much done the same thing – the ‘leader’ gracing the cover with the Catalan outlet emphasising how, once again, Messi leads Barcelona to victory on the pitch.
Fati gets a passing mention as well for his ‘canon’ that opened the scoring when the team struggled to get going. But there’s also no time for rest really.
Barcelona are back in action this Friday as they travel to face Sevilla in what should be a highly entertaining and difficult game for the Catalans. And considering how tight things are in the standings, victory there will be crucial.
There’s a lot Quique Setién has to fix because even though Barça beat Leganés 2-0, the visitors had a couple of clear chances and the home side mostly struggled to create anything meaningful.
Needless to say, they will need to show much more against Sevilla on Friday.
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This Saturday afternoon, Barcelona will travel to Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan to face Sevilla for the control of the third place in the table. The Andalusians have already proved they are an incredibly tricky opponent so this clash is bound to be a big one once more.
But there is some good news for Ronald Koeman ahead of the Saturday challenge. Barcelona have officially confirmed that Ronald Araujo is once again training with the team. Of course, the centre-back has been out of action for quite some time now and the Catalans have missed him dearly.
He may be still young and developing but the Uruguayan is a true rock in their defence. Having him available should definitely help in the remainder of the season, especially since Gerard Pique is also back.
However, we still don’t know whether Koeman will risk his defensive talisman right from the start this Saturday, even if he is given the green light. Sometimes, throwing players into the fire immediately, especially for such a huge game, can be counterproductive.
Araujo is surely eager to play but Koeman needs to think long-term when making this tricky decision. Despite the opposition and the importance of the match, maybe it wouldn’t be that bad to start him on the bench.
After all, he can always be substituted in if the team requires some extra solidity in the latter parts of the clash. Hopefully, however, it doesn’t come to that.
Either way, this is a must-win game and the team better be ready to face the challenge.