• Classification. 34 day

The evicted Barcelona had to be seen to show that another present was possible. That he could only find refuge in the ball, never in regret. Perhaps nowhere is enough to catch Real Madrid in the race for the League, with four points ahead with 12 in dispute. But a performance like the one completed in front of the highly praised Villarreal at La Cerámica should confirm the evidence: there is no surer path to success than good play. And Barça still knows how to do it. [Narration and statistics (1-4)]

To interpret such a change in the football trend, it would be advisable to take on the role of Antoine Griezmann . About to reach the twilight of the season, and after no one knew what to do with it -an extreme days without overflow, others a false battering ram without knowing how to be a reference-, it occurred to Quique Setien that he could still find a solution.

After tormenting him with the bench and examining his patience with a controversial entry into the field in the 90th minute against Atlético, the coach finally found an ideal fit of pieces. A plan in which Griezmann finally abandoned indifference and also enhanced the incidence of both Luis Suárez and Leo Messi . A troika that only seemed to lead to heartbreak.

At the apex of 4-4-2

In the end, everything happened to place Messi at the top of the diamond in a 4-4-2. With Griezmann and Suárez with absolute freedom in attack to interpret the progress of the Argentine. When the ball flows and the players take the spaces consistently, nobody gets in the way.

It was Sergi Roberto , rescued like so many other times for the interior, who broke lines in the action of the opening goal. The action, strangely choral given the immediate background, reached the climax with the opening to Jordi Alba and the assistance of the laneman to the small area, where Griezmann was waiting. The Frenchman was preparing to mark his heel. He even executed the gesture, without noticing that it was going to be the central Pau Torres who put the foot to end up taking the net.

Villarreal, before being carried away after half an hour, responded in a jiffy after a loss to Messi in the wide area to which Anguissa , Alcácer and Cazorla made sense. Ter Stegen put out his hand, but nothing would prevent Gerard Moreno from going to the rebound to score at the empty door. The VAR validated the position of Alcácer, who could do little more after being injured and replaced by Bacca .

A masterpiece

But, this time, Barcelona was not going to be carried away by its demons. The horizon was so clear behind the double pivot of Javi Calleja that it was only necessary to have patience, avoid the game breaking on the open field, and Messi to continue drawing. The Argentine, after checking his chest and making Anguissa hate his profession, found Suárez. And the Uruguayan, always strange, so horny, so delicate, stroked the ball so that it began to rotate without remedy. Sergio Asenjo could not help but admire the ball's journey on its way to the net.

Messi direct free kick against the bar of Asenjo.REUTERS

Until the masterpiece perpetrated between Messi and Griezmann arrived. La Pulga stepped on the ball knowing that, behind his back, the Frenchman was preparing to emulate him. Because Griezmann was suddenly that Messi who amazed Villamarín in 2019. From the balcony of the area, at the first touch and with a parable that once again reminded us that football, beyond its storms, is also art.

The futility of effort

Given all this, Calleja found no better option than to collect himself. Gerard Moreno and Iborra no longer left after the break. And Villarreal was convinced that any effort would be useless against a sweet rival. Messi was canceled the fourth for a previous offside by Arturo Vidal in the prelude to the play. But the booty ended up catching Ansu Fati , a substitute for Griezmann, and who showed his jovial display with a goal in which he combined both irreverence and quality.

Messi did not want the night to end. He finished off a crossbar foul in the twilight and squirmed as Asenjo saved his hide against Martin Braithwaite . Little did it matter. Barcelona discovered Barcelona. "We live on what we kill," defended Chirbes. It's only about that.

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