FC Barcelona News
Hard Fought Draw After Alves Sees Red
May 14th, 2012FC Barcelona closed out their league campaign with a 2-2 draw at Real Betis. In a dramatic encounter, Busquets handed Barça the lead with a header from a corner, but, just as the game was looking straightforward, Dani Alves was sent off and Betis responded with two well-taken goals by Rubén Castro. Keita salvaged a point with a header in injury time.
Barcelona’s first half performance was as dominant as any away from home this season, pinning Betis back in front of the area and defending intelligently on the few occasions they lost possession. Betis were very swift on the break, but time after time Javier Mascherano was in the right position to win the ball back for his team, and make sure Víctor Valdés had nothing to do.
After maintaining pressure from the opening whistle, the away team took the lead within ten minutes – Xavi swung a corner in from the right, which Busquets met unchallenged at the near post to head home into the far bottom corner of the goal and give Barça an early lead.
Xavi had a free-kick from 25 yards, which had Casto worried and hit the side-netting of the near-post. Ibrahim Afellay was impressive in the opening period, demonstrating his pace and dribbling abilities, but it was Adriano at left-back who would next test Casto, when he cut in from the left-wing, evaded his marker and powerd a shot at the right side of goal, which the ‘keeper did well to tip past the post on the stretch.
The first ten minutes of the second half were packed with incident. Keita had chances, first drawing yet another smart save from Casto, and later firing straight at the Betis ‘keeper. Immediately after, Rubén Castro got the better of Mascherano for the first time in the match, but Víctor Valdés showed no signs of rustiness when he rushed off his line to smother the ball.
Then Dani Alves was earned a second yellow and expulsion from the pitch for a wild tackle on Jonathan Pereira as the winger took him on down the left wing.
Guardiola elected to withdraw Afellay for replacement right-back Montoya, and went about the game much the same fashion as before Alves’ red card, but Valdés had to make a reaction save with his legs in the 69th minute when Mascherano deflected a Nacho cross towards goal.
It proved to be a warning of things to come, because minutes later Rubén Castro latched onto a through ball and lifted his finish over the onrushing Valdés to equalise. And almost immediately after, Rubén Castro got in behind once again – this time he was released by Beñat, and found the bottom right corner to give Betis the lead.
Late in the game Messi smashed a free-kick from 30 yards that had Casto beaten, but rebounded off the post. And then, right at the death Montoya swung a teasing cross that Keita nodded down and in.
0-1 Busquets (min 8)
1-1 Rubén Castro (min 70)
2-1 Rubén Castro (min 73)
2-2 Keita (min 91)
Barça outguns Gunners
March 9th, 2011After losing 2-1 against Arsenal in the first round, FC Barcelona only needed a 1-0 victory to go through to the Champions League quarter-finals on away goals. However, 1-0 was never going to be enough against a team such as Arsenal and the reality was that Barça made things unnecessarily complicated for themselves thanks to a second half own goal by Busquets.
Barcelona came on looking like they intended to win and possession throughout the match was close to 70 percent. The majority of the play was in Arsenal’s half, which perhaps was just as well with Puyol still of through injury and Piquet serving a suspension. However, Arsenal was dealt a poor card in the 18th minute, when goalkeeper Szczesny was substituted through injury.
Arsenal started to look ruffled and things got heated, losing their cool. Meanwhile Barça continued a relentless attack on the Arsenal goalmouth and Barcelona really looking like they’d deliver the goods. However, Arsenal were still still unnerved by Barça’s dominance continued going in hard. The result was a yellow card for Van Persie for a foul on Alves and he was perhaps lucky not to have been sent off immediately.
2 mins into injury time Messi came close to scoring, and then a minute later out the ball home to end the first half 1-0.
If the score had remained 1-0, Barcelona would have gone through. Unfortunately things are never that simple and while defending the Barça goal Busquets scored an own goal for the visitors, which changed things completely. However, once again the balance tipped in Barcelona’s favour, whenVan Persie was shown a second yellow card for proceeding after the offside whistle blown – a controversial decision, which the player contested with the ref.
1-0 Messi (min 48)
1-1 Busquets p.p. (min 52)
2-1 Xavi (min 69)
3-1 Messi (p) (min 71)
Barça rises to second place in the league
September 27th, 2010Barça finished the weekend second place in the league after beating Athletic Bilbao 3-1 away in miserable conditions thanks to torrential rain.
As usual the hosts played hard and by the end of the match both teams were down to 10 men. First off was Amorebieta after 35 minutes, although the replay looked like the referee was wrong; with a string of red cards to his name – he has one of the worst records in the Spanish league ever – perhaps his reputation meant the referee just didn’t give him the benefit of the doubt.
Keita meanwhile was working hard, and that work finally paid off in the 55th minute when the ball went home. Barcelona kept up the pressure and possession remained high throughout. Although several chances were wasted, eventually Xavi made it 2-0 in the 74th minute.
David Villa received a red card just 4 minutes before the end. It didn’t look like too much, but the reply clearly showed him throw his fist; what preceded that I’m not sure though.
And just when it looked like that was going to be it, Gabilondo scored for Athletic, suddenly putting the three points in danger. However, that threat was short-lived, with Busquets putting the ball home to make it 3-1 for the visitors.
0-1 Keita (min 55)
0-2 Xavi (min 74)
1-2 Gabilondo (min 89)
1-3 Busquets (min 92)
The squad is heading of to Kazan today for their Champions League match on Wednesday against Rubin Kazan. They faced them last year in freezing temperatures, but this year the away leg is six weeks earlier than last year and so the temperature expected to be in the double digits (that’s Celsius for our American readers!).
The great news is the Lionel Messi has been included in the squad after making a much faster than expected recovery from his ankle injury. Whether or not he plays is a different matter, but it does show that he’s coming back to strength FAST.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
|
1
|
Valencia |
5
|
4
|
1
|
0
|
9
|
3
|
13
|
|
2
|
Barcelona |
5
|
4
|
0
|
1
|
9
|
4
|
12
|
|
3
|
Real Madrid |
5
|
3
|
2
|
0
|
6
|
1
|
11
|
|
4
|
Atlético Madrid |
5
|
3
|
1
|
1
|
9
|
4
|
10
|
|
5
|
Villarreal |
4
|
3
|
0
|
1
|
7
|
2
|
9
|
|
6
|
Espanyol |
5
|
3
|
0
|
2
|
5
|
8
|
9
|
|
7
|
Sevilla |
5
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
7
|
5
|
8
|
|
8
|
Hércules |
5
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
5
|
3
|
7
|
|
9
|
Athletic Bilbao |
5
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
8
|
7
|
7
|
|
10
|
Getafe |
5
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
8
|
8
|
7
|
|
11
|
Mallorca |
5
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
4
|
5
|
7
|
|
12
|
Málaga |
4
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
9
|
8
|
6
|
|
13
|
Almería |
5
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
4
|
4
|
5
|
|
14
|
Osasuna |
5
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
3
|
5
|
4
|
|
15
|
Racing Santander |
5
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
3
|
6
|
4
|
|
16
|
Real Sociedad |
5
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
5
|
9
|
4
|
|
17
|
Sporting Gijón |
5
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
4
|
9
|
4
|
|
18
|
Levante |
5
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
4
|
10
|
4
|
|
19
|
Deportivo |
5
|
0
|
3
|
2
|
2
|
5
|
3
|
|
20
|
Zaragoza |
5
|
0
|
2
|
3
|
3
|
8
|
2
|
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