Barcelona were held to a 0-0 draw at Espanyol after being reduced to 10 men in a high-tempo Catalan derby on Saturday to drop two valuable points in the Spanish league title race. With 84 points, Barcelona still leads the standings, although Real Madrid can cut the difference to one point if it beats third-place Valencia on Sunday.
The derby isn’t an ordinary game, there’s a lot of rivalry involved,” Espanyol’s Francisco Chica said. “We wanted to work hard and that’s what we did.”
Barcelona had difficulty settling into its passing game in a frenzied encounter at its cross-city rival’s Cornella-El Prat Stadium. Espanyol created the first serious chance when Pablo Osvaldo shot high after a slick move left the Barcelona defense standing. In a physical match, Osvaldo received a yellow card in the fifth minute for a tackle on Sergio Busquets. Luis Garcia was cautioned soon after as Espanyol refused to give Barcelona time on the ball.
With Zlatan Ibrahimovic only recently recovered from injury, Maxwell and Pedro Rodriguez flanked Lionel Messi in attack, although they barely mustered a serious chance in the first half. A cross from Pedro that struck the post in the opening minutes was Barcelona’s best chance. With Barcelona still unable to make the breakthrough in attack, coach Pep Guardiola introduced Thierry Henry and Seydou Keita early in the second half, replacing Yaya Toure and Gabriel Milito. The change nearly paid off immediately, with Messi making some space on the edge of the area and curling a shot just wide.
Dani Alves was unfortunate to receive his second yellow card for a tackle on Jose Maria Callejon, leaving Barcelona with 10 men. Messi looked like he might break the deadlock in the 85th when he dribbled past four men into the area, but Nicolas Pareja slid in to steal the ball.
Loading ...
I though Messi seemed really uncomfortable in his role and somewhat self-conscious about whether he should go for goal or not. And by not being of clear mind, he wasn’t flowing. It was as if he felt pressure that if he tried hard to score he would be viewed as simply a goal getter. Therefore, when he was going for goal he was forcing himself, rather than simply letting himself free to score.
Even worse, there was a two on one where Messi completely ignored the teammate in one his left when a pass would surely have been the right play. When he didn’t pass, but instead forced himself to try and score he looked real bad and self-centered. Surely a goal would have resulted had he played one of his marvelous passes, and it is surely a factor of being messed in his mind that he hogged the ball instead.