Nobody will be more hurt to see Real Madrid lift the La Liga trophy than Lionel Messi.The Barcelona captain has tried his hardest to inspire his team this season but, despite his best efforts, Barça have fallen short.Madrid were crowned champions of Spain for the 34th time on Wednesday night thanks to a 2-1 win over Villarreal.But even if Zinedine Zidane’s side had lost the match, they still would have ended the night with the title after Barcelona slumped to a shock 2-1 defeat at home to Osasuna.José Arnáiz put Osasuna 1-0 up in the 15th minute before Messi levelled the scores just after the hour-mark with a sumptuous free-kick.However, Roberto Torres popped up with the winner in the fourth minute of stoppage-time to earn the visitors a 2-1 victory.Messi, who was understandably frustrated and disappointed after the final whistle, voiced his frustrations in an interview with the Spanish media.
Per ESPN’s Samuel Marsden, Messi said: "Roma, Liverpool... the fans are running out of patience because we're not giving them anything. If we want to fight for the Champions League, a lot has to change. Like this, we will lose to Napoli."Barcelona drew 1-1 with Napoli in their Champions League Round of 16 first leg and will go head-to-head against the Italian side on August 8.Messi continued: "We have to be self-critical, starting with the players, but across the whole club."
On Real Madrid winning the title, Messi was quoted by @BarcaUniversal as saying: "We were inconsistent during the season. Real Madrid did their thing. We lost a lot of points. We have to do some self-criticism. We are Barça.”
He also said: "Madrid did their job, but we helped them a lot in that.”
The Athletic’s Dermot Corrigan also reports that Messi said: "All season we have been a very weak team, beaten for intensity, for motivation, people can score against us very easy, we lost many points where we shouldn’t lose them. This game has just summed up how our season has been."
Messi is clearly angry and who can blame him?
The 33-year-old has produced masterclass after masterclass this season and must feel like he’s doing everything single-handedly at times.
This seems like a clear message from the world’s best player to the Barcelona hierarchy that things need to change.