La Liga: Barcelona Without Messi Loses Points With Draw VS Eibar

Barcelona without their talisman Lionel Messi, suffered another disappointing result as they were held 1-1 at Camp Nou by struggling Eibar on Tuesday.

AllNews understands that Barcelona was without their captain as six-time Ballon d'Or winner Messi is nursing an ankle injury and watched from the stands.

The result left Barcelona in sixth place in LaLiga, seven points behind Atletico Madrid who have played two fewer matches.

READ ALSO: La Liga: Barcelona Defeat Leader, Real Sociedad 2-1, Title Race Open

"We have to be realistic," said Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman. "The league is very complicated. In life nothing is impossible, but you have to recognize the points gap to a team like Atletico, which seems to give very little away."

In Messi's absence, Martin Braithwaite took an eighth-minute penalty kick and missed. The Dane did put the ball in the net in the 25th minute but the strike was disallowed.

Although Barcelona dominated possession and took far more shots, Eibar took the lead after 57 minutes. Their captain Kike Garcia pounced after a defensive mistake from Ronald Araujo.

"I take responsibility," said Araujo. "I didn't notice that the forward was so close."

"It's a pity, we wanted to win and we played well."

Ousmane Dembele leveled 10 minutes later with a right-foot after he came on as a substitute shot but Barcelona could not find the winning goal.

"We were missing Leo, of course," said Koeman, before asking: "How is it possible that we didn't win this match?"

❝Again tonight, we had to come back, and if you don't score more than one, then it's a draw.❞
— @RonaldKoeman, on whether the missed penalty kick influenced the match pic.twitter.com/h2Lw4qNVe8

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) December 29, 2020

"We created chances, we missed a penalty, and we gave away a goal, the only shot on target they had?"

Barcelona has struggled with injuries this season and lost Philippe Coutinho who limped off in added time.

❝We did enough to win the game.❞
— @RonaldKoeman pic.twitter.com/s6mx3pDjS5

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) December 29, 2020

"He said he was feeling pain in his left knee," said Koeman. "We need to do more tests to find out exactly what's wrong with him".

In the other early game, Lucas Ocampo converted an early penalty and Youssef En-Neyri added a second after the break as Sevilla beat visiting Villarreal 2-0. Sevilla moved onto a tie for third with Real Sociedad and Villarreal.