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Miralem Pjanic had earlier expressed his disappointment at not being able to play more at Barcelona.
Barcelona registered a comfortable 3-0 win over Elche last night to keep league leaders Atletico Madrid within their sights. The presidential elections will take place on March 7th and it will have a significant impact on Blaugrana's plans for the summer.
Without further ado, let's take a look at the top stories involving Barcelona from 25 February 2021.
Lionel Messi lauded for what he did after the match against Elche
Lionel Messi produced an impressive performance against Elche and bagged a brace as the Cules won 3-0 at home. He didn't stop there. The Argentine's gesture towards Elche goalkeeper Edgar Badia after the final whistle has been appreciated by many on social media.
Badia walked up to Lionel Messi to ask for his shirt. After obliging the Elche goalkeeper, Lionel Messi asked for Badia's shirt in return and he was caught off guard for a second. Messi was seen smiling throughout and the exchange went viral on social media and he was lauded for his gesture.
Ronald Koeman urges Pjanic to improve his rhythm
Though Barcelona ended up winning comfortably against Elche last night, the scoreline was 0-0 at half-time. Koeman took Miralem Pjanic off to bring on Ousmane Dembele in the second half. In the post-match interview, Ronald Koeman revealed why he chose to take the former Juventus midfielder off.
Koeman said:
"He has to improve his rhythm on the ball and know his position. If you substitute a player, it seems like he’s to blame for a bad first half, but it’s not like that. The others didn’t give rhythm to the game.
“We dropped Messi to No.10 and opened up the pitch with Dembele to get depth. That’s why I made the change.”
Barcelona presidential candidates clash ahead of elections
Victor Font, Joan Laporta and Tony Freixa are the candidates for the upcoming Barcelona presidential election. Victor Font and Joan Laporta are the frontrunners for the presidential position and the two have come face to face over a number of matters in the recent days.
The latest issue, as per Mundo Deportivo, is surrounding Albert Benaiges who attended Laporta's event on Thursday. He had earlier appeared to be part of Victor Font's plans. As per the initial plan, Benaiges was set to be director of the club's grassroots levels along with Joan Vila.
Font has accused Laporta of pressurizing Albert Benaiges to attend his event. Victor Font put out a series of tweets which said:
“We do not like how people such as Albert have been put between a rock and a hard place, and the mental position of “you are either with me or against me” means continuing to submit Barça in the climate of revenge that has surrounded the club for more than 10 years.
We will take advantage of the press conference this afternoon (4.30 pm) to explain everything.”
