Could man marking be the key to stopping Messi?

- "Messi" (CC BY 2.0) by jeroen_bennink -

When the final whistle blew at Montilivi it was after another Barca master class as they ran out 0-3 winners against Girona. Two own goals and a Luis Suarez strike was enough to keep Barcelona top and stretch their unbeaten run to 6 games this season.

It is 6 wins from 6 and all the early signs are ominous for the chasing pack including bitter rivals Real Madrid. Barca look as fluid as ever and are a real threat going forward. Teams will be scratching their heads and wondering how to stop Barca picking them apart and running riot. It often turns into a rout once they get to 5th gear.

The glimmer of hope for the rest of La Liga will be the fact that Messi was contained last night after being man marked for the entire game. His threat was snuffed out by defender Pablo Maffeo as the youngster didn't give Messi a moment’s rest. The on loan defender from Manchester City stuck to his task and was able to negotiate the mastery of Messi.

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FC Barcelona - 6 , Eibar - 1 | Extended Highlight Videos | Barca Match Videos

FC Barcelona continued their winning ways in the League with a 6-1 thrashing of Eibar at home. Once again it was Lionel Messi who was the chief architect of the victory scoring four meanwhile the heroes from weekend - Paulinho and Dennis Saurez repeated their feats scoring one each.

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Is Ousmane Dembélé Barcelona's King in Waiting?

Before he moved to one of the world's largest football clubs, French prodigy Ousmane Dembélé was already being hailed as a future Ballon d'Or winner by pundits. Commenting on the young star's early career at Borussia Dortmund, Bleacher Report's Dean Jones not only suggested he'd win the coveted trophy but that he's better than Cristiano Ronaldo was when he was 20. Pointing to his decision making abilities and, importantly, consistency, Jones rated Dembélé as one of the top young prospects in the world and certainly one to watch.

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