Messi Goes Off The Mark In Barca’s Koeman-Era With Right-Footed Beauty [Watch]

Lionel Messi scored a brace Wednesday and went off the mark in FC Barcelona’s new journey under the management of Ronald Koeman.

After Barcelona finished the 2019-20 campaign without a trophy, their first trophyless season since 2008, the board sacked head coach Quique Setien and replaced him with former Netherlands boss Koeman.

Barcelona’s pre-season match against Catalonian club Gimnastic was their first game under Koeman, which Messi and Co won 3-1, courtesy of goals from Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann, and Philippe Coutinho. The former La Liga champions' next club friendly game took place Wednesday that was against Girona FC, a Catalonian club that competes in La Liga’s second division league.

Watching Messi score goals for fun against Girona showed that the strain of his off-field issues with the club had not affected him. After Coutinho scored the opening goal of the match at the 21st minute, Messi struck a right-footed beauty from a distance off the post to give his side a 2-0 lead. Soon after he scored his first goal under Koeman, the Argentinean playmaker added one more to his account, and that sealed the 3-1 victory for the Catalans.

Coutinho now has scored in two back-to-back games, and this is nothing short of being excellent news for the club. He recently returned from a season-long loan from Bayern Munich after the Bundesliga champions refused to sign the Brazilian midfielder permanently. Coutinho was involved in the last three goals in Bayern Munich’s 8-2 win over Barcelona in the Champions League’s quarters. It was reported that the former Liverpool star was tipped to move to either Chelsea or Arsenal. However, his agent now has ruled out those moves, and the 28-year-old is expected to be given a pivotal role in Koeman’s plans for Barcelona for the 2020-21 campaign.

The last few weeks had been tough for the Catalans because of Messi’s transfer saga. After the previous season ended, Messi informed the club that he wanted to part ways with immediate effect. While he believed he could leave as a free agent, Barcelona made it clear that any club that wanted to sign their skipper would have to trigger his release clause of $826 million. As a result, to avoid a legal battle against Barcelona, Messi decided to stay and see through his current contract, which is due to expire in 2021.

Barcelona are set to kickstart their La Liga campaign this weekend by hosting Villareal.