IN SPORT.ES
The impossible and brilliant Lionel Messi produced a brace to sandwich a Philippe Coutinho strike as Barcelona eased past a defensive-minded Alaves to start La Liga with a good win.
Abelardo instructed Alaves to play classically tight at the back - this was a typical ‘everyone behind the ball at Camp Nou’ display.
And it worked, with the Catalans frustrated and able to carve out few clear opportunities in the first half.
A low Lionel Messi stinger was well dealt with by Fernando Pacheco, but it was one of the only pieces of action he saw in the first half, with another notable intervention his save from Ousmane Dembele.
Messi, who was excellent, fed the Frenchman but he was not precise enough with his finish. Precision was Dembele’s problem on an otherwise bright display, as shown when he should have sent Messi through on goal but his short was too close to the sole Alaves defender.
The closest Barca came to scoring in the first half was Messi, obviously, with his free-kick crashing against the crossbar.
Ernesto Valverde hooked Nelson Semedo at half-time, bringing Philippe Coutinho into midfield and moving Sergi Roberto to right back.
Eventually Barcelona broke the deadlock the next time Messi was given a free-kick. In the 64th minute he sent one under the wall which tricked Pacheco and trickled in. A magical moment from the real magician - El Mago Pop was one of the guests watching on from the presidential box.
The Argentine struck the post moments later with a curled effort, taking his woodwork tally for the league season to two already. Some things never change.
Coutinho added the second after good work by Arthur, with the Brazilian curling home after cutting into the box from the left, and Messi scored with literally the last kick of the game, taking Suarez’s ball well in the air, beating two men and slotting in.
At times it was slow going, but Barcelona got there into the end. One down, 37 to go.