Lionel Messi Fan

We didn’t see much of Lionel Messi on Sunday night in FC Barcelona’s 2-1 defeat to Atletico Madrid, but in one way or the other, there were reasons to explain Messi’s strange “absence” in the game.

With Rafael Marquez and Gerard Pique both temporarily prohibited to play for Barcelona subsequent to their controversial red cards against Getafe at the beginning of this month, the Barca defense seemed weaker than ever, looking at the fact that Dani Alves, Yaya Toure, and Eric Abidal were also all ruled out due to sad injuries.

As a result of these “miseries” on the side of Barcelona, Atletico Madrid got all the favor. The home side stole the show immediately after the referee’s whistle, putting the pressure on the league leaders.

After only 9 minutes into the game, Atletico Madrid were in front with an opener from Diego Forlan. A brilliant counter-attack from the midfield of Los Colchoneros granted the Uruguayan a glorious one-on-one chance he couldn’t miss.

Shortly after, the Portuguese star Simao shocked Valdes with a brilliant curling free-kick to double Atletico Madrid’s lead.

On 27 minutes, Barcelona finally got a reply through their swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who crushed the ball at the back of the net during a corner.

Lionel Messi did not have any clear chance in the game, and as he wasn’t able to produce anything special for Barcelona, the second half went on to finish goalless, with the final result remaining 2-1 in favor of Atletico Madrid.

Watch the video highlights of the La Liga match “Atletico Madrid 2-1 Barcelona” and get more football video highlights.

Isaac Asante, Footballfantalk.com

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