With the Spanish season kicking off in the third weekend of August, it was clear that defense ruled the roost with 12 games producing just 10 goals.
Of the 10 goals scored, Barca scored one against Atletico Madrid while Real Madrid scored none against Sporting Gijon.
Without a doubt, it was a quiet start for both Messi and Ronaldo who have dominated the scoresheet for a few years now in Spain.
Messi had a penalty to open his scoring tally but missed as Atletico goalkeeper, Gorka Iraizoz, managed to save it. In all, Messi had two out of four shots on target.
Alternatively, Ronaldo had a frustrating day playing against Sporting Gijon. He took 10 shots and of which four of them hit the target. However, he couldn’t get a breakthrough and match Barca’s one goal win over Athletic Bilbao.
It must be said that while Messi had his moments of brilliance, he found it difficult to hurt Athletic. As the game progressed, his runs became more and more ineffective. If that wasn’t enough, he missed his 14th out of 63 penalties for FC Barcelona.
As for Ronaldo, he accounted for almost half of Madrid’s shots. Yet the best chance of the game came in the second half from a James Rodriguez cross. On any other day, the Portuguese would have had it in the back of the net but it was not to be on Matchday One. Finally, there was one more shot that produced a wonderful save from Ivan Pichu while being the most dangerous of the Madrid side to make a breakthrough.