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Barca beat Huesca in Messi’s 500th game


Bangladeshpost
Published : 04 Jan 2021 07:48 PM

Barcelona edged La Liga’s basement club Huesca 1-0 on Sunday courtesy of a Frenkie de Jong goal made by Lionel Messi in the Argentine’s 500th league appearance for the club, reports Reuters.

Dutch midfielder De Jong arrived at the far post to meet a Messi cross and score on the volley in the 27th minute to give the visitors a deserved lead after a rampant start.

But Ronald Koeman’s side failed to take their many other chances and in the end were made to sweat for all three points.

Huesca could have levelled in the second half when the ball trickled across Barca’s area and striker Rafa Mir directed a backheel at goal but the shot lacked power and keeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen made the save despite seeing the ball late.

The win took Barca above Sevilla and into fifth place in the standings on 28 points, 10 behind leaders Atletico Madrid who beat Alaves 2-1 earlier on and who have a game in hand on the Catalans. Huesca stay bottom with 12 points.

“It’s evident we need to kill off our opponents in games like these; we suffered too much in the end,” said Barca keeper Ter Stegen.

“But these are three very important points, we had to suffer for them and games like this are very important when you want to win the title.

“They hacked us a bit in the first and second half and we weren’t able to take our chances but we stayed focused throughout.”