Swaths of empty seats around the Camp Nou on Tuesday for Slavia Prague's visit in the Champions League reflected the current malaise surrounding Barcelona, one amplified by this past weekend’s 3-1 defeat to Levante in LaLiga. That match both increased the pressure on manager Ernesto Valverde and condemned Luis Suárez to a three-week spell on the sidelines with a new calf injury.

Lionel Messi hit a remarkable milestone, but he won’t be celebrating it after his Barcelona side gave up three goals in seven minutes in the second half of a 3-1 defeat to Levante on Saturday at Ciutat de Valencia. 

Messi opened the scoring with a well-taken penalty in the 38th minute, giving the visitors a 1-0 lead at halftime with Barça’s first awarded penalty of the LaLiga season.

The goal was the 500th Messi has scored with his left foot for Barcelona.

Even by Lionel Messi’s ridiculous standards, the Barcelona captain’s 90 minutes against Valladolid at the Camp Nou on Tuesday constitute something outrageous. After the two clubs exchanged heavily deflected efforts in the opening 15 minutes, Messi sprang into action with a beautiful assist, stunning free kick (and two brutal nutmegs) to put Barcelona up 3-1 at halftime. In the second half, he scored another goal and added another assist to lift Barça to the top of the LaLiga table.

Former Atlético Madrid youth/Arsenal flop Lucas Pérez scored the greatest goal of his career (although he did hit a nice bicycle kick earlier this season), earning Alavés a 1-1 draw with Atlético in Basque Country on Tuesday.

Granada is top of the LaLiga table. No, not the country. Granada CF, the football team from Granada, Spain. The same Granada that appointed Tony Adams in 2017 and was relegated.

Some big news coming out of UEFA Youth League Group F on Wednesday — perhaps the biggest UEFA Youth League Group F news we’ve ever presented on the hallowed pages of The18: In the group’s early match, 18-year-old American winger Konrad de la Fuente scored two great goals as Barcelona thumped Slavia Prague 4-0. Later in the day, Inter Milan responded to Borussia Dortmund’s early goal with four unanswered, but that Dortmund opener was scored by Youssoufa Moukoko.

Barcelona needed everything it could muster to hold on to a narrow 2-1 win over Slavia Prague on Wednesday in the Czech capital, surviving a late flurry from the hosts.

The three points would have been much easier to come by had it not been for a once-in-a-lifetime miss from Barcelona’s No. 10.