With Lionel Messi and Neymar watching on, Frank Tigani believes Alexis Sanchez showed that he has overcome his troubles at Barca with a splendid hat-trick.
What a difference a year makes. This time last year it seemed Alexis Sanchez was on his way to leaving Barcelona. A string of frustrating performances, an inability to find the net, a crisis of confidence and his perceived lack of understanding with his teammates on the field had the critics out in full force. One Marca headline read, ‘Where is the Nino Maravilla?’, while a column in the Catalan daily Sport lambasted the Chilean saying, “much more was expected of the player now in his second season with the Azulgranas…Normally new signings do better in their second season but this is not the case with Alexis”.
All the criticism was rather justified too. Last season the Chilean scored just once in his first 1087 minutes of play. It took him until mid-January to open his La Liga account. All this had papers both in Spain and abroad speculating that a Barca exit was on the cards for Alexis. England’s Daily Express claimed Liverpool were keen, while La Gazzetta dello Sport maintained Juventus – who had lost the race to sign him initially from Udinese – also had the hots for him. Indeed, both Marca and Sport indicated that Juventus could well be his next destination.
How things have changed now. On Sunday, with Lionel Messi and Neymar on the bench, Alexis enjoyed arguably his finest hour as a Blaugrana. In just a little over an hour he claimed his first-ever hat-trick for the Spanish giants. For the first two strikes he displayed his striker instincts by getting on the end of two fine passes from Jordi Alba and Pedro. The third however was an absolute gem. Alexis does not get too many chances to show off his ability from dead ball situations but he made the most of the one given to him on 69 minutes. A beautifully hit curler left Tono no chance in the Elche goal.
It was the perfect ending to a splendid night for Alexis. Five minutes later Tata Martino substituted him and as he walked off he was met with a rousing applause and ovation from the Barca faithful.
Alexis, along with Pedro, is now Barca’s leading goalscorer this season with 11 strikes. He is not only scoring, but it is clearly visible that his confidence has returned too. And this, Alexis said after the match, is down to Martino: “Tata has given me the confidence every footballer needs. A confident player can contribute much more than just scoring goals.”
Everything has come full circle it seems for Alexis and the player himself deserves much credit for turning his fortunes around. Amid the storm of criticism that was aimed at him in the first part of last season, he said, “I accept the criticism because it makes me stronger. I can give a lot more of myself and I know how good a player I am. I have to earn a spot in the starting line-up”. And, he certainly was true to his words. Even with the arrival of Neymar, Alexis has been a regular starter this season.
Alexis’ goals were not only an important landmark for him, but it also enabled Barca to keep up with Atletico, whose victory on Saturday evening had allowed them to sit clear at the top of the table for at least a day. Surprisingly it was not Diego Costa who did the business for Diego Simeone’s men away to Malaga, but, rather it was Koke whose solitary strike gave Atleti a slender and perhaps slightly fortuitous victory.
There was nothing fortuitous however about Valencia’s win in their derby test against Levante. New coach Juan Antonio Pizzi’s arrival had the desired effect as Los Che ran out comfortable 2-0 winners. The three points lifted Valencia out of the bottom half of the table to make for an ideal start to the New Year for all at the Mestalla.
