Playing without fans horrible and ugly, says Messi
Barcelona's Lionel Messi has explained how tough it has been to play without fans in the last year as a result of novel coronavirus pandemic, likening the knowledge to an exercise session.
"It's horrible to play without fans, it's an extremely ugly sensation," Barcelona captain Messi told newspaper Marca on Monday after getting the 'Pichichi' award for the most notable scorer in La Liga last season.
"Seeing no-one in the stadium is like a training session and it is very tough to essentially get going in the beginning of a casino game."
The brand new normal of football in empty stadiums has certainly taken its toll on Messi and Barca.
The Catalans were top of La Liga with 11 games to go when last season was disrupted by the pandemic nevertheless they surrendered the title to Real Madrid when play resumed in empty stadiums.
They then suffered a humiliating 8-2 defeat by Bayern Munich in the Champions League within an empty Estadio da Luz in Lisbon in August.
This year they have made their worst begin in 33 years and so are currently fifth in La Liga, way off the pace of leaders Atletico Madrid, while they didn't finish top within their Champions League group for the first time since 2006.
The 33-year-old Messi meanwhile is having his worst individual season because the 2007/08 campaign, scoring only nine goals in every competitions, five of which have been penalties.
"The truth is it's very ugly so in retrospect we are seeing such evenly matched games. It's very difficult to win, no matter who you are playing against," Messi added.
"The pandemic has caused football to improve a lot, and for the worse. You can view it in the matches, and I hope this all ends soon and we are able to get fans back into the stadiums and return to normality."
Supporters have already been absent from Spanish top-flight games since March but are set to come back from April once a sizable section of the population has received vaccines to protect against the virus.
According to Spanish media, the first game with fans will be last season's postponed Copa del Rey final between Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao, because of happen on April 4.
