The captain went to war with sporting director Eric
Abidal during the week but he responded by
taking his frustration out on Real Betis on Sunday Lionel Messi has been frustrated lately, in many
different ways. Off the field, the Barcelona captain lashed out at sporting director Eric Abidal during the week, having been left bitterly unhappy with the
Frenchman's claim that the squad had been guilty
of not working hard enough under former coach
Ernesto Valverde. On the field, the Argentine attacker has been
playing through a thigh problem, which has
stopped him from hitting his absolute best level,
with Quique Setien’s tougher training routines not
exactly helping. MORE TEAMS  The normally mild-mannered Messi was even
involved in a training-ground quarrel with
goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen a couple of
weeks ago, as tensions rose around the club. And on a wider scale, he was unimpressed with Barcelona’s failure to resign Neymar last summer, not least because of Barca's Champions League drought, which now stretches back five years to
2015. Right now, he’s also being frustrated in front of
goal in La Liga, which is usually where he is most comfortable. With a personal record of 11 shots
without scoring against Valencia, followed by a further 10 unsuccessful attempts against Levante, the forward hoped to break that ignominious and
unusual run against Real Betis on Sunday. Barcelona won 3-2 but Messi had four more shots without scoring, including a one-on-one. He was
upset with the refereeing too. Brought down once
with no foul given shortly before Betis opened the
scoring, then tugged back in the box at the end but
without receiving a penalty, the forward looked
totally bemused by the officials. And yet he was the game's decisive player,
underlining that there really is no good time to face
Messi. Legendary AC Milan boss Arrigo Sacchi once said that there was no way to stop Diego Maradona; he
would either score against you or create a goal.
Against Levante, Messi set up both of Ansu Fati's
goals. Here in Seville, Messi created three, to make it
five assists in just two league games. Messi’s strangely poor finishing has coincided with
Setien’s arrival as Valverde's successor and it can be
argued that Barca are, in general, trying to
rediscover their old game under the new boss. Giving Setien the reins has been like giving a high-
speed remote-control car to a kid. He doesn’t know
how to fully control it yet, isn’t sure what all the
buttons do, but knows he wants to go fast. If that means crashing a few times on the way, then
so be it. They certainly went off-track quite a bit on
what was Setien's eagerly awaited return to Betis. The first half, in particular, was like a game of
pinball, with Barcelona dominating in the way
Setien wants in some stages, but losing their flow in
others, which made them vulnerable in defence. Betis took advantage. They went ahead after just
six minutes when Clement Lenglet handled Nabil
Fekir’s effort in the area and Sergio Canales sent
Marc-Andre ter Stegen the wrong way from the
resulting penalty. But Barcelona waltzed down the other end and hit
back almost immediately, with Messi clipping a
perfect ball to Frenkie de Jong, who finished coolly. Betis moved ahead again through Fekir, who fired
in a low effort from distance after the defence -
Samuel Umtiti especially at fault - stood off him. Barcelona were rocked but swung back anyway,
scoring the equaliser shortly as the interval
approached. Again, Messi was the supplier,
whipping over a free kick that Sergio Busquets
converted. Shortly before the half-time whistle blew to restore
some order to the chaos unfolding on the field, the
Argentine then missed his first big chance after
being put straight through, allowing Joel Robles to
smother his effort. The same thing happened in the second half when
Messi twisted and turned in the area but could only
find the goalkeeper's gloves with his shot. It just didn't feel like this night, and yet, at the same
time, it was, with his looped free-kick headed in by
Lenglet for Barcelona’s winning goal. Fekir and Lenglet were both sent off in the hectic
final stages of a battle to remember but there was
no taking the shine off this victory for the visitors. After the midweek spat between Messi and Abidal,
and then the shock Copa del Rey elimination by Athletic Bilbao, this was a timely boost for Barca,
after Real Madrid had temporarily moved six points clear at the summit of La Liga earlier in the day. It was a big boost for Messi too, as he showed once
again that while it is sometimes possible to stop him
scoring, it is impossible to stop him from shining, no
matter how frustrated he gets.

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and he wasted alot of chance....he should be thankfull to his teammate for converting his set pieces...