Barcelona is playing a Copa del Rey match against Espanyol today and it should be a cinch. For one thing, Barcelona is a vastly superior team—for the sake of comparison, Barcelona has 39 points in La Liga and Espanyol has only 21. For another, more important thing, Barcelona has Lionel Messi and Lionel Messi is here to shatter the sport of soccer into a million pieces and rebuild it in his own beautiful and terrifying image. Just look at this free kick, which he perfectly executed near the end of the first half:
Messi’s first goal was vintage Messi:
Barcelona leads 2-1.