‘We are already thinking about the celebration’: Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitic jokes that he doesn’t bother watching Lionel Messi’s free-kicks as he knows his team-mate will score
- Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick as Barcelona thrashed PSV 4-0
- Messi’s first goal was a perfectly-executed free-kick as he showed his quality
- Ivan Rakitic joked that he doesn’t bother watching Messi’s free-kicks
Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitic joked that sometimes he doesn’t even bother watching Lionel Messi’s free-kicks … he just gets ready to celebrate.
Messi scored a hat-trick as Barcelona beat PSV 4-0 and his first goal was a set-piece special.
‘A lot of the time when we get a free-kick we are already thinking about the celebration,’ said Rakitic who admitted Barcelona had made the near-perfect start to their Champions League campaign.
Lionel Messi opened the scoring for Barcelona against PSV with an excellent free-kick
Messi’s composure from set-pieces is one of the many qualities that he possesses
Messi’s goal set him on the way to a hat-trick and Barcelona on the way to an emphatic victory
‘They [PSV] were motivated with it being the first game. It’s not easy because this is the Champions League,’ he said warning that Barcelona are still just going up through the gears. ‘We can still get better. This has only just started. We are still not at 100 percent.’
Asked about the importance of the Champions League to the club this season he referenced Messi’s comments to supporters at the start of the season when he promised the players he would do everything possible to bring the ‘beautiful and much desired’ cup back to Barcleona.
Rakitic was full of praise for Messi following his team-mate’s hat-trick against PSV
Rakitic said: ‘It is always special and even more so if Leo puts it like that. This could be a year of a lot of trophies.’
PSV coach Mark Bommel complained that the foul leading up to free-kick should not have been given. The Dutch coach said: ‘The foul before the free-kick was very important in the game. I don’t think it was a foul. But we should have stopped Dembele before he got that far. It’s debatable, but I don’t think it was a foul.’
Van Bommel added: ‘Leo is the best in the world. But the 4-0 was too much today. We are still developing. But I think no team would be capable of stopping Barcelona today. Leo can put it in the corner before that things were going well.
‘You can lose here there is no shame [in that]. We have the youngest group and we are still on the right road. They are far ahead of us at the moment.’
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