It proved to be a memorable weekend of sporting comebacks in and for Europe, but for Barcelona, their 3-2 victory in Seville on Saturday night was so emotionally significant not only because they recovered from two goals down to rescue three more unlikely points in the title race, but because they also rediscovered two World Cup winners in the process.
In the seven days between the Catalans’ similarly late success against Granada last weekend and victory at the Sanchez Pizjuan, the papers had been ablaze with rumour over the spat between Lionel Messi and David Villa.
Depending on which side of the fence, or indeed in which city your paper was printed in, it was either a clear sign that the two struggle to co-exist or merely passions boiling over. However, no matter which theory holds more weight, it seemed inevitable that it should be Messi who threaded a ball through the finest of needles for Villa to smash in his third but by bar far most important goal since returning from the broken tibia that kept him out of the second-half of last season.
The return to the big stage of Spain’s all-time leading scorer rightly therefore took centre stage, but that would be to overlook a highly significant night for another of the Spanish national team’s darlings.
Until Saturday night, Cesc Fabregas hadn’t scored a League goal since the Catalan derby in January, yet Tito Vilanova’s faith in the former Arsenal captain has been such that Fabregas is the only Barca outfield player to have started all six League games so far and finally there was a reward as within 35 minutes of breaking his goal drought to bring his side back into the game, he scored a second from another perfectly measured Messi through ball.
Barca had done it again, for the third game already this season they had found the answer to the questions posed in the final 10 minutes. But, whilst all that is on the one hand the sign of champions, this early into the season it is also a sign of weakness.
The pre-match fears of a centre-back partnership of Javier Mascherano and Alex Song being bullied by Alvaro Negredo were more than realised as the Spanish international knocked the two formerly holding midfielders about and showed more strength and desire than Song on his way to scoring Sevilla’s second goal. Dani Alves was even worse in allowing Piotr Trochowski to take aim for the opener, whilst the more he plays the more you wonder whether Alexis Sanchez is really suited to Barcelona.
For now their record remains unblemished and Vilanova vindicated, but if they are to protect or even extend their eight point cushion over Real Madrid in next weekend’s Clasico they are issues that need to be resolved quickly.
The gap between Barca and the champions remained at eight points as Real came from 1-0 down to crush Deportivo La Coruna 5-1 with Cristiano Ronaldo registering his first hat-trick of the season and even looking mildly happy to have done so.
However, Real remain six points off city rivals Atletico as they showed their depth of squad and nerve to win 1-0 at Espanyol without the injured Radamel Falcao. Instead it was Raul Garcia who pounced on Juanfran’s fantastic first-half cross to move Los Colchoneros back into second place and within two points of Barca at the summit.
Malaga also remain in touching distance after maintaining their fine start to the season with a 4-0 win over an unfortunate Real Betis who can’t seem to keep 11 players on the pitch at the moment. Isco and Javier Saviola were once again the stars for Manuel Pellegrini’s team who travel to play Atleti next Sunday in Week 7’s other big clash.
