05/16/2021 4:48 PM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 05/16/2021 4:48 PM
As if it were an electrocardiogram, FC Barcelona's season was full of ups and downs.
And this
apathetic
closure
, of elusive success, seemed to be
an unequivocal summary
of a path full of stones that hardly would have deserved to end otherwise: the 1-2 against Celta de Vigo at the Camp Nou, which left Lionel Messi and company with no chance of winning the Spanish League at a final date, it is
the x-ray of frustration.
How could a campaign that started almost without the
Argentine
crack end
, with a
practically broken
relationship with the club
, with a burofax and request to leave the institution?
What other corollary could a journey have that included not only
an unusual departure
like that of Luis Suárez (the same one that this Sunday could well have scored the championship goal for Atlético de Madrid), the departure of the president, the call for elections ?
Ronald Koeman consoles Messi after the defeat with Celta de Vigo.
AFP photo
How could a year that began with a stumble in the Super Cup and that, except for a few hints of reaction, always showed
a crestfallen team
and a coach (Ronald Koeman), apart from small hits, continually in the eye. from the storm?
Celta's slap, which beat him
2-1 with a goal in the 44th minute of the second half
, left him with no mathematical chances of winning the domestic tournament.
With 76 points, he was
closer to fourth
place (Sevilla, with 74, only did not overcome it because they fell to Villarreal 0-3)
than to second
(Real Madrid, 81), which he will no longer even be able to reach.
It will be the
first time in 13 years
that the Catalans do not finish champions or runners-up.
And it could be
the first in nearly two decades
(18 seasons) that it
doesn't finish on the podium
.
System changes, three center-backs, lanes, promising young people (from the quarry, such as Ansu Fati or
Riqui Puig
; or acquired, such as
Francisco Trincao
,
Pedri
or
Matheus Fernandes
) who performed more or less but did not finish, together with those experienced from always (Messi,
Piqué, Jordi Alba, Busquets, Griezmann
), to form a solid team.
Pedri was a potential great partner of Messi, but they lacked regularity.
Photo EFE
Because Barcelona
never offered certainties
.
He never stopped being a candidate, but he always passed more by names or by specific moments than by a sustained performance.
Every time the team threatened a recovery, with a balance,
something happened
that did not allow to solidify bases.
In the League he spent the first ten games without even appearing among the first ten teams in the table.
At home,
where he plays against a huge percentage of minor teams, he had
just 11 wins and didn't win the other 8 games.
Very little for a team of the power
culé
.
In the four games against Real and Atlético de Madrid he got just
one point out of twelve
.
Between January and April he lived
a mirage
with 13 wins in 14 dates, a streak that was cut precisely against those of Zinedine Zidane.
Messi, arms akimbo after being eliminated from the Champions League.
Photo EFE
Between February and March, the other duel he had against a rival of hierarchy was against Paris Saint-Germain for the Champions League: he was eliminated for the
first time in 13 years
before the quarterfinals
and added
the fifth consecutive beating
that left him outside the contest.
It was 1-4 in the first leg, to be added to 2-8 against Bayern in 2020, 0-4 with Liverpool in 2019, 0-3 with Roma in 2018 and 0-3 with Juventus in 2017.
The Copa del Rey -which corresponds to celebrate it, like any title- also
knows too little by little
.
Just in the semifinals he played against a team of a certain hierarchy (Sevilla).
The 4-0 win over Athletic Bilbao in the final was perhaps the highest point of the season.
Messi with the Copa del Rey.
His only trophy in 2020/21.
Reuters photo
There a smiling, happy Messi was seen,
as few times in the campaign
.
Was that last trophy with the Blaugrana shirt?
Now his contract is ending and, although the elections put Joan Laporta in the presidency, the man who led the club in Pep Guardiola's glorious stage, and although his friend Sergio Agüero is spoken of as a possible reinforcement, there is no certainties of continuity.
Could this have been the sad and lonely end?
