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What's the story?
Lionel Messi's imperious current season with Barcelona, where he has scored an incredible 48 goals in all competitions, ran into some serious trouble after an embarrassing 4-0 loss and elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Liverpool last week.
As reported by Marca, the Barcelona captain has not been pleased with the way the fans have reacted to the same and as a gesture of his anger, refused to celebrate even after his darting run into the box resulted in Barcelona's second goal in last Sunday's 2-0 La Liga win over Getafe
In case you didn't know...
Although Barcelona are well on course for another domestic double, they once again faltered in the Champions League. The Catalan giants have already won La Liga and will face Valencia in the Copa del Rey final later this month. They were eliminated from the semi-finals of the Champions League by Liverpool last week.
Although Ernesto Valverde's team won the first leg 3-0 at the Camp Nou, the Reds put in a spirited display in the return fixture to beat them 4-0 at Anfield. Messi was kept quiet by the Liverpool defense with other creative players like Philippe Coutinho failing to produce anything substantial for Ernesto Valverde's side
It was the second successive season where Barcelona failed to protect their three-goal lead from the first leg, with the Blaugrana suffering a similar fate against Roma last season. Besides leading the goalscoring charts in La Liga, Messi is the top scorer in the Champions League as well, with the Argentine netting 12 goals in the continental competition this season.
The heart of the matter
Messi was confronted and jeered at by a handful of Barcelona's travelling supporters at Anfield after the embarassing loss and this has clearly left Messi angry. His anger has also reportedly been multiplied by the stick that Philippe Coutinho and Barcelona legend Sergio Busquets received from one section of the Blaugrana faithful.
At the final La Liga home match of Barcelona's season this Sunday against Getafe, fans booed the team when they were given the guard of honour by the opposition for their 8th La Liga title win in the last 11 seasons. This clearly ticked of Messi and he was playing like a man posessed.
His sensational run and one-two with Sergi Roberto resulted in opposition defender Mauro Arrambarri bundling in the ball into his own goal, resulting in Barcelona's second goal. A visibly irritated Messi refused to celebrate the goal and after the match, left the pitch without applauding the fans.
What's next?
Valverde will be looking to give the academy players a chance in the first team for this Sunday's La Liga fixture away at Eibar. Barcelona's focus will remain steadfastly on the Copa del Rey final against Valencia on 25th May.
