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Messi misfires as Valencia force draw

Comment: 0 February 2nd, 2012 by: admin

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi was missed from the penalty spot as they drew 1-1 against Valencia in the first leg of their Copa del Rey tie at the Estadio de Mestalla on Thursday.

The Argentine tried to take a shot to the far right of the goal but failed to throw off Valencia goalkeeper Diego Alves the other way and the Brazilian stopped the strike to everyone’s surprise.

The Spanish giants settled for the draw as defender Carles Puyol headed a goal to equalise after Valencia took the lead earlier on with a strike by Jonas Oliveira.

The first real threat came six minutes into the match as Messi won a free kick in a dangerous zone but his attempt flew wide off Alves’ right-hand post. The three-time Ballon d’Or winner menaced again 10 minutes later by taking another attempt on goal but his effort was blocked by Jeremy Mathieu and was then comfortably saved by the Valencia goalkeeper.

Barca were shaky and almost trimmed to 10 men in the 18^th after goalkeeper Jose Pinto committed handball while outside the penalty box. Luckily, it went unseen by the match officials.

Oliveira’s goal occurred in the 27^th as Mathieu played a perfect cross from the left side of the pitch to the waiting Brazilian who scored his eighth goal this season.

Barcelona only needed eight minutes to find an equaliser from a corner as Puyol was able to shake off Victor Ruiz to masterfully head a goal to the ground to bounce into the net.

In the 56^th, Valencia defender Luis Miguel clumsily tackled Thiago Alcantara from inside the box and resulted in the officials pointing to the penalty spot immediately.

Alves correctly guessed where Messi was going to pound the ball and palmed it away, preventing a Barcelona lead.

The only other threatening chance after the missed penalty was by Barca substitute Dani Alves who hit the far post from the right side of the Valencia box.

With the 1-1 draw, the two squads head over to Camp Nou to finally conclude their cup tie on 8 February.

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