This evening at 8 pm bt,
Barcelona plays the 26th game of the league against Athletic Bilbao.
Barcelona plays the 26th game of the league against Athletic Bilbao.
Athletic squad list:
Iraizoz, Toquero, Koikili, Amorebieta, Garmendia, Llorente, Yeste, Gabilondo, Armando, Susaeta, Iraola, Orbaiz, Etxeberria, Gurpegi, Muñoz, Javi Martínez, Etxeita, Balenziaga
Barcelona squad list:
Valdés, Pinto, Jorquera, Puyol, Piqué, Botía, Márquez, Sylvinho, Xavi, Touré, Busquets, Keita, Víctor Sánchez, Gudjohnsen, Messi, Eto'o, Bojan, Henry, Iniesta, Hleb, Pedro
Re-live Athletic-Barcelona 0-1
video
match data
pictures
!!! LIVE MATCH CHAT !!!
From two hours before until two hours after the game you can join a match chat (read more here)
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
9 comments:
At least you will have no RM fans to bother you tonight here;)
Enjoy the 6 points and hopefully soon we will get back the 12 we wasted before!
And do me a favor, no need to criticize players for this game, though some were not in form, make it as an exception after the past two bad weeks, and cheer up!
Or thats what I recommend at least.
Nice display tonight i enjoyed it.
Puyol was great as an rb.
noooooo puyol is out for 2 to 3 weeks and will miss the game against lyon we really didnt need this
I watched only the first half and I thought we were great. The formation was our most attacking one. The players were swarming all over the pitch, there was a lot of movement off the ball, Xavi looked in command, Eto'o attacked the near post and looked sharp, Iniesta was magic, Messi tried to run the ball into the goal, the defense had Pique showing leadership, Busqs was great, Henry, Eto'o etc challenged for the ball from so far up the pitch that winning possession seemed inevitable by the time the ball got to midfield, couldn't have asked for more collective effort from the team.
But what had me convinced from the start that this was our night was the way Bilbao was setup. Defending deep against Barca is the worst thing you can do against the line-up we had. The Basques' manager clearly hasn't been watching the last few Barca games. Where we have shown vulnerability is when pressure is put higher up the pitch when our defense has possession, swarming forward to avoid the cumulative effect of pressure from our fwds and midfield, etc.
The lack of threat seemed to give Valdes confidence and to his credit he seemed determined not to make a mistake tonight. I think the midweek layoff and Pinto's performance helped change his approach. The defense was well organised with one CB always challenging for the high ball and the other covering for the header on.
The perfect comeback although the problem is that it doesn't answer our problems coz there are real problems we have against more attacking line-ups.
I have to watch the 2nd half coz I don't understand why we didn't score more but at the end of it we have 2 goals and a clean sheet. For a confidence booster we couldn't have asked for more.
Btw, anyone notice the triple threat we pose from set-pieces under Guardiola? Its repeated everytime and it works a lot of the time so I just cant understand it when we take the corners short. Essentially we have Marquez charging the near post looking to head on or score, Eto'o and Henry at the far post looking for that header-on or to pick-up any pieces from a goal-line save, the tallest guys Busqs and Pique are always challenging at the centre.
Anyway great confidence booster going into the Lyon game and its so good to have Iniesta back. But Lyon's threat will be different. Hopefully though they will be sucked into playing the same deep defensive game when they come to the Nou Camp and play into our hands.
http://www.goal.com/en/news/12/spain/2009/03/07/1143853/barcelona-lose-puyol-for-three-weeks
finaly we won,i didn't watch the game but i saw goals,Busquets and Messi(11m)
but Bilbao wasn't so bad,they had a few good chances,but we werw stronger
I think having both iniesta and xavi in the midfield is a lifesaver. In recent weeks busquests/keita/gudjohnson have been terrible at playing possession game from third midfielder role. I also think iniesta is more effective at off the ball runs than all three. I fancy our chances of silverware so long as he stays fit.
Also did anyone notice how much space they gave puyol at times. Is this because he isnt alves? The passing and movement today was a joy to watch, who cares if the finishing was poor, at least we can create chances at will with this midfield.
strange there are only 8 posts b4 mine, since 24 hours ago when the match ended. I am supprised the "gloom and doom marchants" are not here yet. the games we lost attracted over 60 posts. are we tired of celebrating victories? I personally prefer it to arguing over who to blame when we lose.
FORZA BARCA
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