New Delhi: The Argentine, Lionel Messi, started on the bench last night, but in his twenty-five minutes on the pitch he transformed the match, scoring two goals.
The Barcelona bandwagon shows no signs of stalling and they took their 19-match unbeaten record in the Primera Division to Racing Santander, looking to re-establish their twelve point lead at the top following Real Madrid's victory at Numancia on Sunday night.
Racing would look to the in-form Nicola Zigic as their main goal threat, while Guardiola opted to rest Lionel Messi and instead played Iniesta up alongside Eto'o and Thierry Henry.
Racing had the first opportunity of the match in the opening exchanges, with Johnathan bringing a save from Victor Valdes after being played in Colsa. After that chance however, Barcelona began to come into the game, and Daniel Alves fired a free-kick inches over the crossbar from long range.
This was by no means vintage Barcelona, however; perhaps we have been spoiled by their offensive philosophy this season producing wonderful drama, but in the first half today they were disjointed and lacking a spark - a Messi-like spark - and this display would do little to convince those that believe that the Blaugrana are only a force with the little Argentine in full flow.
Racing to their credit did extremely well to stifle the creativity of the likes of Iniesta and Xavi, something that few sides have managed to do this season, and as a result there was precious little in the way of chances in what proved to be a rather tame opening period in Santander.
Second Half
But five minutes into the second half the match, and arguably the title race, sprung to life.
Johnathan drew a foul from Rafael Marquez inside the area, and on-loan Valencia man Nicola Zigic, who has been on excellent form since his return to Racing, calmly rolled home the penalty to give the home side a surpris lead. Given Barcelona's lacklustre display, would they have enough to turn things around?
The answer is, that whenever the Catalans have had a question asked of them this season, they have replied emphatically, and today was no different.
Of course, it was Lionel Messi. He replaced Sergio Busquets on 61 minutes, and by the 65th minute he had drew his side level, slamming home insinctively from inside the area - his importance to his club never more obvious.
Still in any doubt? The masterful Messi rubber-stamped his position as the best player in the world by notching a wonderful winner ten minutes from time, slotting home with his right foot past a demoralised Tono in the Racing goal. It was perhaps slightly harsh on the home side, who had contained the Blaugrana comfortable until the introduction of their talismatic star striker.
In the dying minutes, Gerard Pique picked up a second yellow card for a lunging tackle, and now Guardiola may have selection problems for the week ahead.
But once more, Barcelona had turned a match on its head, and surely now are closing in on the Primera Division title thanks, in no small part, to the sensational Lionel Messi.
Goals:
Racing:
Zigic (52')
Barcelona:
Messi (65', 80')
Teams:
Racing: Tono; Oriol, Cesar (Cesar 90'), Marcano, Valera, Racen, Colsa, Moral (Sepsi 61'), Munitis, Jonathan (Tchite 68'), Zigic,
Barcelona: Valdes; Alves, Marquez, Pique, Abidal, Toure, Busquets (Messi 61'), Xavi, Henry, Eto'o (Gudjohnsen 90') , Iniesta (Caceres 86')
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