Barcelona’s Brazilian forward will miss the Catalans’ Liga clash at Getafe next weekend after he picked up his fifth booking of the season in his side’s 2-1 over Villarreal on Saturday. But before that, the 21- year-old once again made the difference in the continued absence of Lionel Messi.
As said with increased regularity of late, this was not vintage Barca, but boss Gerardo Marino was pleased to see his side come through another tricky test without their star man. As Messi continues his recovery from a troublesome hamstring problem in Argentina, Neymar was there to round off a wonderful week with two more crucial strikes.
“This is the victory which satisfies me most,” Martino said afterwards.
“We miss Messi and our rivals are happy when he is not playing. We don’t only miss him when we lose, we always miss him. And if he had been here, we would have played better.”
For the moment, however, he is not, and Barca must win however they can. For the second match in a row, Neymar provided the inspiration.
Following his maiden hat-trick for the Catalan club on Wednesday against Celtic in a 6-1 Champions League win, the Brazilian hit a double for the first time in La Liga on Saturday to claim all three points for the Catalans.
Back on the left this time as Cesc Fabregas returned from his midweek suspension, the 21-year-old opened the scoring from the penalty spot following a contentious call by referee Ignacio Iglesias Villanueva, who pointed to the spot after Jordi Alba’s cross struck Manolo Gaspar’s right hand. “I’d like us to get penalties like that,” Villarreal coach Marcelino Garcia Toral complained
afterwards.
His side equalised through Mateo Musacchio, when the centre-back outmuscled opposite number Marc Bartra to head home from a corner which Barca should have dealt with early in the second half, but Neymar was on hand to tap in the winner after good work by Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez (who had both earlier missed good chances) to make it 2-1.
The Brazilian then set up Pedro for a good chance which the Spain forward flashed into the side netting from an angle and rasped a fierce drive onto the crossbar himself following a darting run and one-two with Sergi Roberto late on which so nearly brought him a second straight hat-trick.
The 21-year-old’s memorable night was only soured by the yellow card he picked up for taking a corner too quickly in the closing stages. “I don’t know what happened, I don’t understand it,” he said afterwards. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
It was Neymar’s fifth booking in La Liga and means he will miss the trip to Getafe next weekend, while he is also likely to sit out the Copa del Rey clash at home to Segunda B side Cartagena in midweek as Barca lead 4-1 from the away leg.
On the evidence of the last two games, he too will be missed.
Posted By Kevin Jasper (@KevinJasper3)