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The Blaugrana supervisor is feeling constructive about his group’s latest kind forward of the primary trophy obtainable this season, and his star man is on the market
Lionel Messi has overcome a knock to be obtainable for Barcelona‘s Supercopa de Espana semi-final towards Real Sociedad, as Ronald Koeman appears to take a step nearer to his first trophy as coach.
Messi had, based on Koeman, some “discomfort” after Barca’s resounding 4-0 win at Granada on Saturday, the Argentinian scoring twice as each he and the group appeared to be discovering their ft once more.
That was the Blaugrana’s third La Liga win in a row – all of which got here away from house – and they’re unbeaten in eight throughout all competitions for the reason that 3-0 house defeat by Juventus on December 8.
Maybe unsurprisingly, Barca’s enchancment has coincided with Messi discovering some pleasure in his sport once more – the membership captain has scored seven instances and arrange one other two in his previous seven video games, racking up extra aim involvements than another La Liga participant over the identical interval.
In his 10 earlier league video games this time period, Messi had solely contributed to 4 objectives in whole – none of which have been assists – suggesting his thoughts was elsewhere following an try to depart the membership, however he and Barca are wanting considerably improved as they head into the Supercopa, with their star man match for Wednesday’s semi-final.
“There are a number of gamers with discomfort, considered one of them is Messi, that’s the reason we withdrew him in Granada,” Koeman mentioned on Tuesday.
“Evidently everybody is on the market for tomorrow, additionally [Ronald] Araujo, though a preparatory session is lacking. It’s a match towards a powerful group and we are able to take the subsequent step.”
Koeman recognises Barca have seemed extra like their outdated selves in latest weeks, notably in assault. Since December 9, the 4 males with essentially the most possibilities created in La Liga are Barca gamers.
“The group is best offensively, now we have extra gamers coming from the center of the sphere,” Koeman mentioned. “We now have gamers in assault who do harm, and defensively the group is working properly. We now have gained in confidence.
“Recently the group is concentrated on each sport – now we have improved on this regard. When we do not have the ball, the group is kind of compact. We’re enhancing our sport.
“Midfield gamers give us lots of menace, however at first of the season we already performed with Messi as a false 9. The distinction is that the group is extra assured and we discover free males between the traces.”
Leo #Messi pic.twitter.com/9gIcXRiEVP
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) January 12, 2021
Wednesday’s contest towards La Actual in Cordoba will likely be Koeman’s first semi-final in cost, with the winners set to play Real Madrid or Athletic Bilbao within the closing.
Whereas the Dutchman sees it as an important alternative for silverware, he doesn’t suppose victory on this competitors will immediately imply Barcelona are again to the degrees anticipated of them.
“For us it is vital, Barca is made to win. It’s not crucial trophy, however now we have to play the semi-final and we’ll give our greatest,” he mentioned. “We’ll play with our greatest group to be within the closing. We need to take step one to achieve it.
“I do not suppose that successful the trophy means being higher. Soccer is fickle and issues can change shortly. It [winning the trophy] would give us confidence, after all, however now we have to go step-by-step, the very first thing is to win the semi-final towards Actual Sociedad.”
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