Leo Messi ended the clásico in a state of undress again but it was Real Madrid who had been stripped bare. Wouldn’t you be?”In their match report, AS made the baffling claim that Barcelona “didn’t need Messi to beat Madrid”. Given what Zidane did, that would be wrong even if Messi had done nothing all game, just his presence conditioning the clásico, but Messi didn’t do nothing. Which is why even when Messi didn’t do anything, he was decisive. The breakthrough came when Barcelona, for once, didn’t look for him – because Madrid did.

Source: The Guardian December 24, 2017 17:09 UTC