Messi thrives on penalties

These goals have been crucial to keeping Barcelona in the fight for the League title. He scored twice at the Bernabéu, the only goal in the game at Cornellá and two more yesterday. Without them Barça would be seven points down.

Messi has become addicted to scoring penalties. His scoring form in recent matches is impressive, but the magic quickly fades when you realise that most of his goals were from the penalty spot. In the last five games the Argentine has hit the back of the net seven times. Only two of them have been in play, the rest came from penalty kicks or from a clearance, like his second goal yesterday.
These goals have been crucial to keeping Barcelona in the fight for the League title. He scored twice at the Bernabéu, the only goal in the game at Cornellá and two more yesterday. Without them Barça would be seven points down. The two he scored yesterday put him in the running for pichichi. He has notched up a total of 25, on a par with Diego Costa and just three points behind Cristiano.
The first penalty yesterday followed a childish foul by Jordi Figueras on Alexis inside the box. Leo fooled Adán and scored an easy goal. Luck was on his side for his second. Betis’ goalkeeper deflected the shot but Leo got to it and slotted the ball home to finish off the match. Goals aside, it wasn't the Argentine's best match. His game lacked continuity and he was inactive for several minutes. He seemed to melt away at times during the match, returning only at certain moments to execute specific moves.