OK, so in the time between the Lionel Messi missed the chance I'm about to write about and me actually writing the piece, the little Argentinean genius has opened the scoring for Barcelona against Athletic Club, but fuck it, the miss still needs talking about. A lot.
Messi has made a career out of performing stupendously absurd feats in front of goal on a regular basis, whether he's making a fool out of a hapless goalkeeper one-on-one, bending in an outrageous free-kick or giving opposition defenders twisted blood as he dribbles past them before knocking the ball into the back of the net.
So with this in mind, it's utterly bewildering trying to fathom just how he missed this opportunity to open the scoring at San Mames, tonight.
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Neither Messi or his Barca teammates can believe what's just happened as the ball ricochets off the post and wide of the goal. It's an occurence as rare as a solar eclipse and even after repeated viewings, we're still not sure how it happened.
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Naturally, just a few minutes later, the five time Ballon d'Or winner finished a sweeping team move in emphatic fashion to fire Ernesto Valverde's men into a 1-0 lead, which they have come close to extending on several occasions before the half-time whistle went.
At the other end of the pitch though, Barcelona have survived a strong penalty appeal from Athletic Club after Samuel Umtiti was accused of handling in the box, before Inaki Williams wasted a glorious opportunity inside the area and was then followed up by Aritz Aduriz being denied, one-on-one, by Marc-Andre Ter-Stegen.
Now, to watch that miss again and figure out just how he's managed to do it.
Topics: Football News, FC Barcelona, Football, Lionel Messi, La Liga