FC Barcelona may be leading the way in the 2015 2016 La Liga season, after three consecutive wins in 
the first three weeks of play. However, the soccer club's campaign so far has been a far cry from the high-scoring hijinks of the 2014 2015 season. Indeed, in the first two games of the season, Barca only narrowly edged out their opponents, beating Athletic Club Bilbao 1-0 in week one (thanks to a second half goal from Luis Suarez) and topping Malaga in week two (1-0 again, courtesy of defender Thomas Vandermaelen). And now in week three Barcelona beat Atletico Madrid in their strongest performance so far of the 2015 - 2016 La Liga campaign.
Barcelona's struggles in those early matches were due, in part, to a long list of sidelined players. In addition to Neymar, who missed game one because he was recovering from Mumps, Barca's disabled list this season has included five different defenders (Adriano Correia, Jeremy Mathieu, Gerard Pique, Douglas Pereira, Dani Alves), as well as goalkeeper Claudio Bravo.
The Return of the Messi-Neymar-Suarez Front LineÂ
The issues with injuries (or in Pique's case, a red card) had soccer analysts wondering whether or not Atletico Madrid might be able to get the better of Barca on Saturday, September 12th. Atletico would have the home field advantage, after all. Luckily for Barcelona fans, Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Luis Suarez chose this moment to get back in action.
The trio of Messi, Neymar, and Suarez had been FC Barcelona's not-so-secret weapon throughout the 2014 2015 campaign, propelling the football club to a treble victory. Some fans have even questioned whether or not the Messi-Neymar-Suarez trio is the greatest front line in Barca football history-not a small point of praise, by any means.
With that said, though, the Messi-Neymar-Suarez trio has struggled to activate so far this season. Neymar missed the first game and had to get back in the groove after his illness, which made sense. More surprising was the fact that Messi went scoreless for the first two games, getting a slow start to the 2015 2016 campaign just after being named UEFA's Best Player in Europe. (Not that he was alone: Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo was also left searching for his first goal of the season after the first two games.)
Saturday's game against Atletico Madrid was the first time this season that Barcelona's front line looked to be firing on all cylinders. Barca ultimately only won the game 2-1-and they had to come from behind to do it after Atletico's Fernando Torres opened the scoring at the 51-minute mark. However, the game saw the first scores of the season for both Neymar (at 55 minutes) and Messi (at the 77-minute mark, with an assist from Suarez). Both points bode well for the football club going forward.
A Celebratory Goal
Messi's winning goal was a celebration of sorts for the legendary striker, whose wife just gave birth to a baby boy this week. Lionel missed practice on Friday to spend time with his son, but was clearly ready to play the next day.
The goal was also Messi's 287th in the La Liga, meaning we should expect the Argentine soccer celeb to hit the unprecedented 300 mark hopefully within the next few months. He is already La Liga's all-time top scorer-36 goals ahead of Athletic Bilbao's Telmo Zarra. Ronaldo is moving up the charts too, though. On the same Saturday that Messi broke his scoring drought, Ronaldo scored five goals in Real Madrid's win against Espanyol. That dynamite performance brought his La Liga total to 230, allowing Ronaldo to officially pass Raul as Real Madrid's all-time leading scorer.
Between Messi's celebratory week, Ronaldo's big scoring day, and the return to form of Barcelona's unstoppable front line, the wearers of the Atletico Madrid home shirt 2015 2016 were sadly overshadowed on Saturday. Torres' goal gave the club the lead, if only for a few minutes, but on the whole, Atletico were outplayed by Barca at every turn. In terms of possession, for instance, Atletico Madrid only managed to control the ball for 31 percent of the match.
Can Atletico Madrid bounce back to contend for a La Liga title this year? Or will we see Barcelona defending their 2014 2015 treble come spring of next year? Follow Soccer Box on social media to keep tabs on the unfolding 2015 2016 football season! You can find us on multiple social networks including Facebook, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
