MADRID – Lionel Messi will be there when Barcelona starts its season on Sunday, as it has been for more than two decades.
Each of his movements, however, will be tested as before.
After all, Messi had never told the club he wanted to leave, and Messi had never been forced to stay.
Will Messi do his best?
Some of these questions may begin to be released on Sunday when Barcelona open their blind season against Villarreal at Camp Nou, which will be the club’s debut after the postponement of the first two matches for their participation in the Champions League. League at the end of last season.
The team’s last referee led to the embarrassing 8–2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals in August, one of the worst defeats in the club’s history and Messi’s career, which plunged Barcelona into one of its worst crises and led Messi to make public his preference to leave.
The wonderful Argentine nevertheless subsidized after Barcelona rejected his application for free exit. He said he didn’t need to get into a legal dispute with the club of his life. But Messi made it clear that he would have liked to leave and brazenly criticized the club’s president, Josep Bartomeu, for not fulfilling his promise to let him go.
Still, Messi has said he will do everything he can despite his preference to leave, and there is no sign of sadness in the pre-season matches he played in the lead of what will be his last season with the club.
“For a while I thought he wouldn’t stay with us,” said Barcelona teammate Sergi Roberto. “He is our captain, the most productive player this club has ever had and the most productive player in the history of football. I don’t believe in Barca without Leo. Es general who sought to have another experience, but he has given it his all for this club over the years. He’s been motivated since he joined the first team. He’s very professional.
Messi has stayed but Barcelona will have a new coach as a component of the deep adjustments announced through the club following the defeat to Bayern. Ronald Koeman has arrived to upgrade Quique Setién, and it wasn’t long before the Dutch coach said he was looking for Barcelona to start the season without some of his key players in recent years, joining Ivan Rakitic, who joined Sevilla, and Luis Suarez, who joined Atletico Madrid.
Another novelty for Barcelona is that it will come out of a season without trophies for the first time since 2007-08. Real Madrid finished five editions in Liga last season despite the leadership when the festival was interrupted by the coronavirus. pandemic with 11 games to play.
MADRID VS. Pellegrini
The protective champion, Real Madrid, had a difficult match on Saturday against Real Betis, who won two in a row to start the season with veteran Chilean coach Manuel Pellegrini, former coach of Madrid.
Madrid fought in attack in their first 0-0 draw against Real Sociedad last Sunday, while Eden Hazard remains undefeated. Hazard is still unlikely to have the compatibility to take on Betis at Benito Villamarón Stadium.
SUAREZ’S ATLETICO
Atlético will make their Spanish league deyet on Sunday against Granada at Wanda Metropolitano Stadium, but it is not known if Suarez will be in a position to play after his arrival in Barcelona.
Diego Costa hoped to be on the attack after Morata joined Juventus to open an area for Suarez.
EUROPEAN SEVILLA
Like Atletico and Barcelona, Sevilla also had their first two matches postponed by European festival after winning the Europa League in August and their debut on Sunday in the ascended Cadiz will take place 3 days after facing Bayern Munich in the Super Cup.
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