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Antoine Griezmann and Lionel Messi were both on target for Barcelona on Sunday to fire the Catalan giants to a 2-1 La Liga win over Athletic and into second place in the table in Spain.
The game was played in the wake of a leaked report in Spain detailing Messi’s current contract at the club. Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo has reported the captain’s current deal is worth an eye-popping €555,237,619.
Griezmann was asked by Movistar after the win how much his captain was worth and came up with a pretty priceless response of his own. The Frenchman said, “What a question! He is a legend and I hope we can keep enjoying playing with him and he can help us win.”
Messi opened the scoring in the match from a free-kick to net his 650th goal for the Catalan giants. Athletic equalized through a Jordi Alba own goal before Griezmann converted Oscar Mingueza’s cross to secure all three points.
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Griezmann Loves Playing Athletic
Griezmann has enjoyed a superb start to 2021 and now has five goals and four assists in nine games since the turn of the year. The World Cup winner also seems to love playing Athletic Club.
11 – Antoine Griezmann 🇫🇷 has scored 11 goals against Athletic Club in all competitions (5 for Atlético de Madrid, 3 for @FCBarcelona and 3 for Real Sociedad), more than against any other opponent in his club senior career. Critical.
The France international also took time to praise his team for their performance and picked out Ousmane Dembele in particular after a lively performance from the 23-year-old on the right flank.
There’s a lot of games still be played. Our objective is to win as many games as we can between now and the end of the season. We know that Athletic are a team that press well, but I think the work we did until the last kick, we deserved the three points
We are a team. Sometimes you play, sometimes you don’t. We are all involved. Dembele is playing very well, he’s taking great care of himself and working hard off the field. We just want to get him in the best shape as possible so he can help us.
The win sees Barcelona leapfrog fierce rivals Real Madrid into second place in the table, but they are still 10 points behind leaders Atletico Madrid who also have a game in hand on the Catalan giants.
Roberto Returns for Barcelona
Sunday’s match also saw Sergi Roberto make his return from injury after two months out. The 28-year-old played the last 23 minutes after replacing Miralem Pjanic and spoke after the game at his happiness at being back in action, as reported by Mundo Deportivo.
The important thing was to win and get the three points, but on a personal level I was two months away between the injury and Covid. I am happy to be with the team again. We have played a streak of many away games and it has been hard to watch the team on television. Luckily I’m back.
Roberto’s return gives Koeman more options in both midfield and defense. The versatile star has regularly played a right-back in recent seasons and could take over from the inexperienced Mingueza with Sergino Dest currently sidelined with injury.
Koeman could also use Roberto in midfield which is the 28-year-old’s favored position. Barca are back in action on Wednesday when they head to Granada in the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey.
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