For the resumption of the Spanish football championship, Barça replayed on Saturday June 13 and won. FC Barcelona managed to make a comeback against Mallorca (4-0) thanks to goals from Arturo Vidal, Martin Braithwaite, Jordi Alba and the inevitable Lionel Messi.

After 98 days without a match, the six-time Argentinian Ballon d'Or reappeared on the field without a beard, with a look reminiscent of the Messi of 2015, and scored the fourth and last goal of the beautiful return night blaugrana to give a little d to his own on the roof of the Spanish Championship (61 pts)

Real Madrid (56 pts), temporarily relegated to five points from first place, receives Eibar on Sunday (5.30 p.m. GMT) for the 28th day of Liga.

"There was a lot of uncertainty about the answers we were going to give. No one was sure and certain of what was going to happen. But all of them showed subtlety with the ball. (...) I am happy , because starting like this is a very good sign for the future, "reacted Barça coach Quique Setién after the match.

A few dozen supporters at the finish of the teams

Despite a right quadriceps alert in the past week, Messi has been fielded alongside Antoine Griezmann and Martin Braithwaite on the blaugrana attack front, and has compiled one goal and two assists.

But supporters will have to wait to see the terrifying Catalan attack trident reunited: Luis Suarez, who took advantage of the confinement to recover from a right knee operation on January 12 without missing too many matches, only entered 'at 57th place de Griezmann.

The fans awaited them firmly: in the evening, under the cheers of a few dozen supporters who came to attend the arrival of the teams despite the security measures deployed, the players, hidden behind the official Barça mask, could feel the palpable excitement of the return of football.

"Finally!" Exclaimed the Catalan daily L'Esportiu on its front page this Saturday. "The leader is back," agreed the sports newspapers Mundo Deportivo and Sport.

"No pressure" for Zidane

Barça made the trip to the island of Majorca in the morning of Saturday, and stayed in a hotel entirely reserved for the club. All trips (airport-hotel, hotel-stadium, etc ...) were made in two buses instead of one. The players and staff then underwent coronavirus detection tests before entering the two disinfected changing rooms intended for them.

Despite these draconian standards, the return to the lawn of Messi and others symbolized a great relief for the whole of Spain, and a first step towards a return to normalcy in a country which deplored 243,605 cases and 27,136 deaths of the coronavirus, according to the latest figures on Saturday.

"The absence of the public will not take away our happiness and the chance that we will come back to play. The public will be missed, but everyone is very happy to resume," reacted Zinedine Zidane, the coach du Real, this Saturday for its first post-pandemic press conference.

For "Zizou", "no pressure" however about the delay on Barça: "This is the situation, we are two (five provisionally, Editor's note) points behind and we have eleven finals left. We will give everything to win this Liga ".

The showdown is revived between the two great rivals of the championship.

With AFP

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