This evening at 10 pm bt,
Barcelona plays the twentieth game of the league against Numancia.
Barcelona plays the twentieth game of the league against Numancia.
Numancia squad list:
Juan Pablo, Diego, Juanra, Felipe, Pavón, Sergio Ortega, Boris, Palacios, Bellvis, Juan Carlos Moreno, Nagore, Dimas, Del Pino, Quero, Barkero, Brit, Goiria, Aranda
Barcelona squad list:
Valdés, Pinto, Jorquera, Alves, Piqué, Puyol, Cáceres, Abidal, Sylvinho, Xavi, Touré, Busquets, Gudjohnsen, Messi, Eto'o, Bojan, Henry, Iniesta, Hleb
!!! LIVE MATCH CHAT !!!
From two hours before until two hours after the game you can join a match chat (read more here)
Re-live Numancia-Barcelona:
match data
pictures
Before (what are your expectations, what's your prediction, what should be the line-up,...), during and after the match, you can also comment on the game here.
Posts
13 comments:
Yay we won :P
4-1!
MESSI MESSI MESSI MESSI
good news barca start 2nd round with 4-1 basa 4 life
My 10 Cents moments after the game finished- so still in the heat of the moment;)
1) As I mentioned in the chat Application between the two halves, when Gudi/keita dont play, you can see there importance more and that was obvious in the first half. Pep wanted to use the psychological incentive selecting almost the same selection that lost the first game in the liga because they have a point to prove, that was smart yet it proved again that in this selection iniesta has to move wide when set offense while Henry cut into the box, he didn't and the result was the same as always when you have Xavi+Iniesta in midfield, lot of possession, lack of threat.
2) In the second half, good move by pep to ask Abidal to go forward more often so henry get into the box, Abidal runs opened the field wider even though the team kept focusing on Alves flank to move the ball.
3) Their canceled goal cast lot of doubts, its not so clear for me it was a foul even though there was a body contact, the player arm make it look as a foul, but being up after three steps before a jump make me doubt it.
4) The goal they scored was a great shot, very difficult to block by Valdes, yet, he made two mistakes in that ball: he jumped into the net and not outside, and he stretched his two arms while you can only hope to block this kick stretching one arm.
5) Their was some doubts on the goal we scored. There is an offside smell in it.
6) It was not Eto'o night, thats why I thought Pep, bravely, may substitute him counting on Henry as a striker and playing Gudi/busq as a third midfielder while iniesta move to the flank. but when we sealed the deal, I think pep was right to substitute Henry to save his energy.
7) Messi scored our 5000th goal in la liga, but Failed to score his third in the game.
8) Numancia played a great tactical game, and the last moment tactical change made by their coach switching from 4-5-1 to 5-4-1 confused us in the first half.
9) Our players ability to have patience and stay calm and focused even if they dont score early was one of the main reasons for winning this game.
10) to Crush this kind of Buses you need to take more shots and to create a system to clear a path and generate shooting opportunities, something we still lack dearly.
Alright, I am sure Messi and Alves will get enough praise, so i will save some energy and go to bed:)
One more team down, Next!
Iniesta was top-notch tonight!
I wish he would have more luck scoring, he really deserve's it.
I have a few things to add to what Ramzi has already said.
1. Valdes could have positioned the wall a lot better. I think that if he had had an initial view of Bakero taking the kick he could have saved it. Also he needed to position himself a few steps outside the goal and face more towards the freekick taker rather than straight on.
2. Pique seemed a little confused with his positioning as Toure kept turning up directly in front of him. Toure looked a little groggy during the game, like as though he had a bad night.
3. Abidal actually did well last night.
4. The 5-man defense was interesting as it put an extra man in just at the point where Messi penetrates during his mazy runs. What excited me was that in the first half Messi showed good intelligence and converted to playing a Guily-role hanging on the last man wide of the defense. I don't know if I haven't watched enough games but I haven't seen him do this too often before.
5. Iniesta was the most inventive player for a large part of the game but we really need a man OFF the ball rather than a ball-handler in that position. In the 2nd half Henry moved inside creating space for Abidal but Iniesta continued to operate as a midfielder rather than a winger. Besides Henry's movement was such that he would only be effective for attacks from the right flank and was rather redundant for attacks from the left. I feel this was a mistake, we should have operated Iniesta as a winger and Henry should have taken a more central position. In fact i think Pep should explore the option of using him(Henry) as a replacement for Keita.
6. Etoo has taken to waiting on the edge of the penalty area rather than rushing the box so that also means another player is needed to meet the crosses.
7. Spanish teams even if they park the bus play with a defense that likes to push up. In the CL English and Italian teams might prefer to back-off so that means there will be more space for shooting options from outside the box.
8. It isn't so bad is it when the left back is also attacking ? With most teams playing with only one fwd a 3 man back line is unnecessary. I hope an attacking left-back is the first player we buy in the summer.
p.s : If Iniesta had scored with that dink over the keeper it would have been the Goal of the Game.
Some points of mine on the game.. starting with the disallowed goal..
50-50 decision.. Del Pino had his elbows up though.. but on most days it would have been a goal..
Here's a highlights vid.. I've taken the liberty of taking some shots to support my points
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=oUY9TsM8fJI
Now we come to the first goal we scored..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34785040@N08/3224259769/in/photostream/
We see Alves is on the 18 yard line and their last defender is just ahead.. Alves would be onside as the ball is played as he was running with some pace.. so a fair call..
Now to the Free kick we let in..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34785040@N08/3225116062
The little blur between the 1st & 2nd players in the wall from the left is the ball.. indicating the wall didn't do their job properly.. and with that pace and accuracy, its hard to fault VV on that one..
As for the game in general, this midfield may not do well in Europe.. Toure was caught off position many times and there was not enough support to the back four.. Busi or Keita required.. which leaves us the dilemma of who to leave out in the left side of the pitch..
Very interesting shots, Vj, thanks for that!
Thanks Pep..
Ramzi,I think Messi scored the 4998th goal.It will need for another 2 goals for 5000th goal.
yeah 2 more reqd..
and damn!
he should have scored th 3rd one..
the chip which met the woodwork was so agonising!
@Durimii : I will send the Football channel that mentioned the 5000 goal to court, I have a reputation to defend :)
@Vj: thanx for the Videos, I dont blame Valdes for the goals, I am just saying his reaction was -technically- wrong, but even if it was right that shot was too hard to blog, specially with the wall defect.
Regarding the goal, its not Alves who was offside but after he received the ball, and the moment he controlled it on his chest to play it over a player, Messi was offside(slightly but still), so even if later we consider alves ball to messi as a cross, Messi still came from offside position.
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