The Fiver | As cold Tuesday nights go, Lionel Messi has had better

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Last week in Camp Nou, little Leo Messi whacked a free-kick into the top corner then wheeled off in celebration, ending up sat on the turf, arms wide and legs akimbo, soaking up the adulation, the king of All Football and master of his domain. Spool forward six days, and there he is, prone on the grass again, only this time he’s being clipped round the lug by Andy Robertson, like a misbehaving four-year-old, a confused and disoriented look on his grid that could best be described as glaikit. Robertson’s early strategic skelp fair took the wind out of Messi’s sail, and that was pretty much that. He spent the rest of the evening stood in the centre circle, either sulking or performing a perfectly choreographed tribute to the warm-up routines of Anthony Martial, The Fiver’s not sure which. And they say a week’s a long time in politics.

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