Lionel Messi apparently gets under his rivals' skin. I suppose being ridiculously good will do that.
Yesterday in the Copa del Rey against Espanyol, Messi scored an absolutely absurd free kick. Espanyol keeper Pau Lopez set up his wall perfectly, positioned himself perfectly, and reacted to it perfectly, but was still left grasping for air as the kick sailed through the air, off the crossbar, and down in the the goal.
That goal made the score 2-1 in favor of Barcelona, a deficit that Espanyol would find impossible to overcome as they lost 4-1.
Later in the game, when the score was still 3-1 and Espanyol was still fighting, Pau Lopez took it upon himself to stomp his foot down on Messi in the aftermath of a goal-mouth scramble. Judging by the quick look Lopez gives Messi’s right leg before putting his foot on it, we’re going to say it was intentional.
There aren’t many ways to stop Messi. Clearly, Lopez ran out of legal ways to do it.
Lopez escaped punishment for his stomp, although we will have to wait and see if La Liga takes any retroactive action against him.
Related: Lionel Messi Has An Enemy. And It's Not Who (Or What) You Think.
Messi, it should be said, was unaffected by the stomp. He notched his second assist on the day thirty minutes after it with a beautiful pass to Neymar for Barcelona's fourth goal.
Messi played a part in all four of Barcelona’s goals, scoring two and assisting two.
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