the past, was a peripheral figure as his side crashed
out of the Champions League to Atletico Madrid on
Wednesday at the Estadio Vicente Calderon.
Atletico won 1-0 on the night, to progress 2-1 on
aggregate, and afterwards UEFA's official game
statistics showed Messi ran just 6.8 kilometres in the
almost 95 minutes of play. This was only 1.4 km more
than Barca keeper Jose Manuel Pinto (5.4 km), and
just over half of the 12.2 km ran by Atletico's match winner Koke.
Messi's average for previous Barca games in the
competition this season is 8.2 km. According to UEFA,
his pass completion figure against Atletico was also
surprisingly low, just 60 percent, compared to 77
percent over his seven Champions League games this
term. The numbers backed up a feeling watching the game, especially in the second half, that the
Argentine looked forlorn as he wandered on the
edge of the action.
Blaugrana coach Gerardo Martino appeared to
suggest after the game that playing the four-time
Ballon d'Or winner out on the wing, away from
Atletico's hard running and tackling midfield, had
actually been part of his tactical plan for the game. "We were looking for a lot of participation from him,
but more one-on-ones on the right wing," Martino
told his postmatch press conference.
"For that we
had Cesc [Fabregas] as a false nine. [Messi] had two
chances due to diagonal balls and him coming inside
to meet the ball. He was not so involved in the second half, that is true. "It did not seem a good idea to us for him to
participate a lot in the game which Atletico play.
We
do not base everything on Leo, also on Cesc coming
deeper, on Neymar and Andres [Iniesta] on the left,
on the full-backs." Neymar ran nine kilometres in total, and Iniesta
managed 7.7km in his 500th Barca appearance
before being surprisingly withdrawn by Martino with
20 minutes remaining.
It was first assumed that the
midfielder must have had an injury problem,
however he told Canal Plus afterwards of his surprise when he saw the No. 8 being held up on the sideline.
"Yes [it was a surprise]," Iniesta said shortly. "But the
decision is for the coach to make." The 29-year-old said being knocked out of Europe
was painful, but pointed out that Barca still had next
Wednesday's Copa del Rey final against Real Madrid
and the La Liga title race to focus on. "This should not affect us," Iniesta said. "The
Champions League is a very nice competition, but
now we have La Liga and the Copa final.
The pain is
for today and tomorrow. We must thank our fans
who came here, and also congratulate Atletico. But
we are going to continue and go for everything we have left." Xavi Hernandez (11.8 km) ran the furthest of the
Barca players, followed by Jordi Alba (11.5 km),
Alves (10.8 km) and Marc Bartra (10.7 km).
Behind
Koke in Atletico's statistics came his fellow midfielders
Gabi Fernandez (11.7 km), Raul Garcia (11.6 km) and
Tiago (11.3 km). In all Atletico's players ran a total of 110.3 km, just slightly ahead of Barca's 107.8 km
total.
Culled From ESPN
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