What is surely Barcelona’s most important goal of the 20th century came thanks to a free kick on the edge of the area. An indirect foul. Bakero took out, Stoichkov stopped and Koeman shot. With that great shot from the Dutchman, Barça won the European Cup for the first time, in 1992 at Wembley. It is one of the advantages of having a feared sniper in those types of launches. However, fouls have fallen out of use at the Camp Nou. The Blaugrana team has gone 100 games without hitting a foul.
Since Leo Messi went to Paris, Barcelona has never made it past the group stage of the Champions League nor does it know what it is to score a goal from a direct free kick. In fact, they are about to celebrate two years of the last target in a shot with a barrier. It was on May 2, 2021 at Mestalla, on matchday 34 of the 20-21 League. It was still played without an audience in the stadiums due to the pandemic.
Some 22 meters from the goal line, Messi barely picked up a run and overcame the barrier from above. The ball touched Cillessen’s left post before entering the goal. It was 1-3. Then nobody could imagine that the Argentine would only play three more games with Barça.
But Messi’s traumatic departure brought these football consequences. Suddenly, without him, the tap was turned off for Barcelona when, curiously, Koeman and Xavi have been on the bench, two of those in charge of fouls in their stages as players.
Last year before selling Coutinho and Pjanic and with Memphis in their ranks, Barça still had a certain threat in the offenses on the balcony of the area. The Dutch forward, now at Atlético, had worked on the modality and scored good goals with PSV or Olympique de Lyon. On the other hand, this season, also with the farewell to Dani Alves, Barça has been left without specialists, something that has permeated the team’s game since there are hardly any falls in danger areas. Without going any further, against Girona last Monday there was no option that was susceptible to directly surprise the goalkeeper.
Asked about it, Xavi admits that there isn’t a great expert on the subject in the squad, but they do have players who have good ball strikes. The coach mentions Pedri, one of those in charge of the corners, De Jong or Ferran Torres among those who can try it. In addition, Raphinha and Lewandowski have seized some foul. The Pole came to score two in the same game with Poland (to Armenia). But in these 23 months even less conventional shooters like Piqué or Jordi Alba have dared.
Nothing to do with the levels of success and confidence of Leo Messi, with his parables and threads and balls stuck to the wood. The Argentine is one of the great pitchers in the world and the goalkeepers knew it. Of the 672 goals he celebrated with the Blaugrana shirt, 49 were free kicks thanks to the glove he had on his left boot. Such was his danger that in the 2018-19 season he managed to land 8 direct free kicks.
Set pieces are also an extraordinary way to unravel even matches. Do you want two samples? The two free-kick goals that Leo Messi has scored this season in Ligue 1. Yes, Messi continues to make them impossible for the goalkeeper in Paris.
The first was in October against PSG-Nice that was 0-0 until the Argentine opened the scoring with a free kick. The most recent, on February 19. In a crazy match, Lille went 2-3 at the Parc des Princes. In minute 87 Mbappé equalized and, after five minutes of minute 90, Messi invented a free kick to the base of the post to rescue the three points.
If the blaugrana are not successful against Getafe, Atlético, Rayo or Betis, it will be two years without a free-kick. A cross not having snipers.
