With the Argentina ace deemed only fit enough for a place on the bench following his hamstring injury in the first leg, Barcelona lacked their usual swagger and PSG took a deserved lead in the 50th minute through Javier Pastore.
But the introduction of Messi in the 62nd minute changed the mentality and belief of the home side, with their talismanic forward the architect of Pedro's equaliser just nine minutes later.
Barcelona seem to be an average side without the Argentine, though they are a side with lots of World cup winners and European Cup winners.
The PSG game was really an indicator to show the world that Barcelona in the last six years have been totally dependent on Lionel Messi, a situation Messi seems to really enjoy, as he showed through his desperation to get into the pitch as soon as PSG took the lead.
While rightly considered a modest and humble player, Messi prefers to be at the centre of things. He looked unhappy when Guardiola moved him to the right flank a couple of times last season, having explicitly expressed his dissatisfaction when Zlatan Ibrahimovic joined in 2009.
In the absence of Messi on the pitch, Barcelona just couldn't pick up a series of nice passes which we have gotten used to seeing them do.
The full backs weren't really a threat going forward and that made the game sort of easy for PSG to press them.
Barcelona just couldn't create any clear shot on goal, infact the PSG Goal keeper was just having a very good time in the post not until the little man appeared to rejuvenate his Barca team mates.
The Catalan's dependence on Messi is no longer a secret, even the assistant Manager Jourdi Roura made it known before the clash when he said " If we don't have the World's best player on the pitch that is evidently a handicap".
Andres Iniesta went on to highlight that fact saying "There is no doubt that in this team there is Messi-dependence in a sense that is fundamental for us but there isn't in a sense that we are team and we all count"
Barca's dependence on Messi has its good and disadvantageous side. One major disadvantage is that he dominates too much and that is to the detriment of their other attacking talents, a factor which made Zlant Ibrahimovic leave the club saying "Pep treated Messi like a god" and that also have made people not see the magnificent striker we all used to know in David Villa, Henry and Samuel Eto just before he left the club.
As Messi continues to score and dominate play for Barca with supreme regularity- registering against every other league opponent, even doing it in 19 successive league games, this really is not a problem to Barcelona because every other team in the World will also like to have one of their player do as Messi does for his team. However this is a problem for Fabregas and also a problem for Sanchez.
In Pep Guardiola's first campaign as Barcelona coach, Messi was the major talent but didn't dominate the side to this extent. Generally roaming the infield from a right-sided starting position, Messi was still a long way from his prolific goal scoring of 2013.
In 2008-09, Samuel Eto'o scored 30 league goals, Messi 23 and Henry 19: the balance was perfect. Last season, Messi hit 50 -- Sanchez was next with 12. This season, Messi's on 43 and Fabregas is his closest challenger with nine. Messi's development is the major cause, but the drop off from others is not insignificant. Barcelona aren't a one-man team -- there's too much quality in midfield for that to be the case -- but when Messi plays, they often appear to have a one-man attack.
The bitter truth still remains no matter how the World cry out that Messi is the soul and heart of Barcelona, that will never be a problem to them neither to their fans provided the World's best player is bagging in the goals and saving the team just as he has done tonight against a hopeful PSG side.
Barcelona signed Messi in 2004 nearly for free, and he has produced a breath taking statistics which have seen the club win the Champions league twice in four years, Win the spanish La Liga, Spanish Super Cup, Copa Dey rey and the World Club Championship trophy.
In conclusion with this stats I feel no one should blame Barcelona for building their team around a Soccer god.
|
CLUB
|
FROM
|
TO
|
FEE
|
LEAGUE
|
Spanish CUP
|
LGE CUP
|
OTHER
|
||||
|
APPS
|
GLS
|
APPS
|
GLS
|
APPS
|
GLS
|
APPS
|
GLS
|
||||
|
16 Oct, 04
|
208 (34)
|
212
|
26 (0)
|
17
|
0 (0)
|
0
|
84 (10)
|
74
|
|||
|
Totals
|
£0
|
208 (34)
|
212
|
26 (0)
|
17
|
0 (0)
|
0
|
84 (10)
|
74
|
||
|
Goals per Game
|
0.87
|
0.65
|
n/a
|
0.78
|
|||||||
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