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#2 Lionel Messi's penalty woes resurface
Minute 61. Espanyol's Esteban Granero rushed on to Sergio Busquets who was tripped and fell down in an instance. The referee pointed to the spot and the match was on the cusp of changing momentum. On stepped Lionel Messi to take the resulting spot kick. On current form, one would have expected Messi to bury it with ease.
But Diego Lopez dived to his right and palmed away the penalty as well as Barcelona's chance to take a huge advantage back to the Camp Nou. In Messi's defence, he had struck it sweetly with the ball expected to hit the right bottom corner. Credit to Lopez for guessing right and then making a world-class save.
This was his second penalty miss in a month and the second against the same goalkeeper in his career. Messi had missed one in December against Deportivo La Coruna. Penalties have been a weak link in Messi's armoury in the recent past, perhaps proving the world of his human qualities.
Remarkably, the miss against Espanyol was Messi's 23rd failure in his career to score from the spot. The Argentine talisman would look to improve on this aspect ahead of the Champions League knockout games and more importantly, the World Cup in the summer.
