With a large section of the Barcelona team involved in Tuesday night’s energy-sapping clash between Spain and Scotland, a top of the table clash with in-form Valencia was not what the Catalan side would have wanted, but after a slow start they secured another hard-fought victory.
The line-up selected by coach Pep Guardiola was close to his strongest starting XI, with Seydou Keita arguably the weakest link in the team. Nonetheless, the hard-working Mali international was one of the few bright sparks in a stagnant first-half – matching Valencia’s grit and determination while rarely giving the ball away. Indeed, conceding possession was an unusually common occurrence for the Blaugrana in the first period, much of which was brought about by Valencia’s organised pressing game.
Lionel Messi was marshalled expertly early on, having been snuffed out well – including some of the usual persistent fouling he faces by opposing defenders. In fact, Unai Emery’s charges produced a textbook performance in the first 45 minutes – combining secure defending with dangerous attacking intent – culminating in Pablo Hernandez’s goal on 38 minutes.
Barcelona’s disorganised defending, meanwhile, was epitomised towards the end of the first half when three of their back four rushed towards the sideline to hound the Valencia player in possession. This apparent lack of communication left two opposition attackers in an abundance of space, and only an expert Victor Valdes save kept the scoreline at 0-1. Apart from Andres Iniesta’s free-roaming creative wizardry, the home side seemed devoid of ideas in the first half – something that has plagued them on occasions so far this season – possibly an effect of the multitude of games Barca’s players have endured over the past twelve months.
The cliché “a game of two halves” is unavoidable when assessing this match, as Barcelona shifted up a gear as soon as the second period commenced. In all-out-attack mode they are unplayable, and the fresh attitude adopted since re-emerging from the dressing room was quickly rewarded by Iniesta’s equaliser. From then on, the Blaugrana rapidly returned to the form they had shown last season. Flurries of attacks followed, with quick-thinking interplay between every outfield player continuously putting Barcelona one-step ahead of their opponents.
With Gerard Pique’s eye for a defence-splitting pass, and the tireless attacking prowess of Dani Alves and Maxwell, Barcelona showed once again they contain an attacking threat from all areas of the pitch. Indeed it was a defender, Carles Puyol, who secured the win with a headed goal on 63 minutes.
Loading ...