Life after Lionel Messi has been going from bad to worse for FC Barcelona, as the Catalan club were reduced to 10 men in a chaotic clash against Cadiz and narrowly held on to a 0-0 draw at Estadio Ramon de Carranza on Thursday.

While the first half rarely had any moment of significance to write home about either than the Barcelona frontline yet again scuffing their chances, the second half was nerve-wracking to watch for any Catalan faithful.  

Barcelona put bodies behind the ball in the end after midfielder Frenkie de Jong was sent off with a second yellow card in the 65th minute. Koeman also was sent off for complaining to the referee in the final minutes.

ALSO READ | UCL: PSG held to a draw by Club Brugge on Lionel Messi’s full debut

With the draw, Barcelona are seventh in the league standings, seven points behind leader Real Madrid with a game in hand. Meanwhile, Real Madrid routed Mallorca 6-1 at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium on Wednesday to stay two points ahead of defending champion Atlético Madrid, which won 2-1 at Getafe on Tuesday.

Cádiz nearly opened the scoring through Álvaro Negredo’s shot from outside the area in the 46th, forcing Marc-André ter Stegen to make a difficult save by the top corner.

One of Barcelona’s best chances was a low shot by Memphis Depay that was stopped by Cádiz goalkeeper Jeremías Ledesma a few minutes later. The Dutch striker missed an opportunity to score the winner deep into stoppage time when his shot from inside the area went wide in a one-on-one situation.

ALSO READ | Arsene Wenger, biennial World Cup and UEFA’s boycott threats

With an extra man, Cádiz had most of the chances at the end but couldn’t capitalize on them, with Ter Stegen making a few good saves.

De Jong was sent off after sliding in to try to steal the ball from an opponent.

Barcelona, still struggling to adjust to life without Lionel Messi, came into the match in turmoil as Koeman and president Joan Laporta remained at odds.

ALSO READ | Champions League begins with upset, Cristiano Ronaldo, Romelu Lukaku make mark

Koeman, hired by former president Josep Bartomeu, surprisingly read from a prepared statement in the pre-match news conference on Wednesday, downplaying the team’s chances of achieving significant results this season. Laporta said he only found out about Koeman’s statement at the last minute and later said changes would be made if needed.

With inputs from the Associated Press