The year is 2019 and Lionel Andres Messi Cuccittini is still saving Futbol Club Barcelona.

Barca began Sunday night’s LaLiga clash with a forward line assembled at a cost of over €300million, yet still they needed their talisman to come off the bench and rescue the team.

Before the match, television cameras zoomed in on some fans with a banner featuring a huge picture of Messi and a caption which read: “Travelled 5,000 miles to see this legend!”

But those supporters were made to wait.

Had Barca been a few goals ahead, they may never have seen him on the pitch at all.

And the Liga leaders should have been in control after Ousmane Dembele’s fine opener in the first half.

There appeared little danger of a Leganes leveller, but it arrived with the visitors’ very first chance of the game as Martin Braithwaite slid home.

And so Messi was needed after all. With 65 minutes on the clock, on he came.

His mere presence on the pitch changes everything. The crowd are lifted, his team-mates buoyed, suddenly more confident, while rivals are anxious, taking a step back. Psychologically, there is an advantage before the Argentine has even kicked a ball.

Sure enough, Barca went ahead in the space of a few minutes and naturally, Messi was heavily involved. The 31-year-old curled a super shot towards the top corner and Leganes goalkeeper Ivan Cuellar could only parry it into the path of Luis Suarez, who poked it in.

Suarez subsequently caught Cuellar with his follow-through and Leganes were furious, but while their goalkeeper was down on the floor receiving treatment, the video assistant referee (VAR) had a good look at it and decided that the goal would stand.

That decision was perhaps surprising as goalkeepers are usually given a lot of protection by the officials, but Suarez did get to the ball first and his boot was not particularly high either, with Cuellar on his knees at the time. Opinions on the matter nevertheless differed.

“For me it’s a clear goal,” Barca boss Ernesto Valverde said. “As big as a piano! [Suarez] doesn’t touch the goalkeeper and [Cuellar] has treatment, which looks good for what they will say…”

For his part, Leganes coach Mauricio Pellegrino said: “Barcelona don’t need these type of actions in order to go in front. It was very clear. When there is contact with the goalkeeper in the six-yard box, it’s a foul.”

But former Spanish referee Eduardo Iturralde Gonzalez saw it differently. “There is contact after the shot and VAR does not see a clear and obvious error,” he said on radio show Carrusel Deportivo. And he noted: “The goalkeeper was on his knees when he challenged for the ball.”

The arguments will go on, but the goal stood. Nevertheless, there were one or two nervy moments afterwards as Leganes pushed high upfield and Barca struggled somewhat to retain possession after Valverde had surprisingly taken off both Arthur and Carles Alena.

Dembele departed as well after falling awkwardly and damaging his ankle, the French forward set for tests today, although his injury does not look too serious.

With 90 minutes on the clock, the fourth official held his board up and there were to be seven minutes of added time, much of that after Cuellar’s lengthy treatment following the collision with Suarez.

Again it was left to Messi to intervene and end the anxious mood among the Camp Nou crowd, the Argentine advancing through the middle, finding his chief assistant Jordi Alba on the left, taking the ball back from the Catalan and blasting an unstoppable shot past Cuellar.

There was no doubt about that one and it meant Messi has scored more goals (22) as a substitute in La Liga than any other player this century. Which is actually very impressive because he is hardly ever on the bench.

More significantly, perhaps, the Argentine’s latest cameo sees the champions stay five points clear of second-placed Atletico and 10 ahead of Real Madrid after 20 rounds of matches.

The year is 2019 and Lionel Messi is still saving Barcelona. Which is why winning La Liga has been so very difficult for everyone else in recent seasons.