Lliga: FC Barcelona - RCD Espanyol 5-1

Schumi. I have absolutely no idea why you think I am a Chelsea fan, and Its completely irrelevant for the question at hand. But since you insist: when I was a little little boy I supported United, chelsea, blackburn and probably some other teams. Why? Cantona, zola and some Norwegians. I ended my first football period around 2003 or something, got interested in other things. Then around 2009 I discovered Barca and messi and slowly I became interested again. Today I dislike english football in general, but that dosent mean I cant say some teams in PL are better than some la liga clubs and so on.

The weakness of Barcelona in general is also a different discussion. The same goes for better clubs in europe. The candidates are nevertheless obvious: real, Bayern, atletico, Psg, Chelsea, city. I dont say they are better, all of them, but Its pretty Even. Fine. The game then.

I said the game ended at 3-1, espanyol gave up. So Its not neccessary to mention the goals after Leo finished the match. But Leo had something to say there also of course;)

My opinion is: those goals by messi was pretty unique, meaning, no other player on the field could have done the same, at least it would be very hard for them. And if lets say neymar did it, it would be him that won us the match. Point: 1. Its hard to do, extremely difficult. 2. The build up wasnt something special at all, messi did it mostly himself. Yes Nice pass from suarez, but messi obviously made the goal on his own.

And quite frankly, saying that fotball is about 11 men and so on is a truism, maradona needed that pass against England in 86 you know, but I think Its fair to say he put in some effort scoring the solo goal, isnt it? Yes it is. These goals by messi wasnt "team goals", they were primarily individual effort, not maradona 86 style, but still pretty unique. Messi won us the match.
 

DinhoR10

New member
The team is built around Messi so of course he'll be the one most involved. All tactics are first formed around the central idea of bringing the most out of Messi, thats just how it is in Barca. There are goals that don't involve him but the team is a vehicle built to be driven by him, like it was for Xavi in 2008 like it was for Ronaldinho before him in 2006 like it will be for whoever comes up next.
 

Andrew M

New member
The team is built around Messi so of course he'll be the one most involved. All tactics are first formed around the central idea of bringing the most out of Messi, thats just how it is in Barca. There are goals that don't involve him but the team is a vehicle built to be driven by him, like it was for Xavi in 2008 like it was for Ronaldinho before him in 2006 like it will be for whoever comes up next.


Reasonably put :)
 

rixxer

New member
I really don't think that the first half was that bad. Espanyol really had a simple game plan and you can't really blame them- keep it tight and try to create smth through counter on the wings. Everybody knows we are vulnerable on those occasions, especially if the ref also tries to give an opponent a helping hand. It was foul against Busi, Garcia did not get the ball in the slightest. After that it was pretty predictable and easy for Espanyol, sit tightly back and defend, frustrate and drag defenders up to the attacking half (they have to create supreiority of numbers) and then release a through ball if possible and hope the quick attackers can get one to one against Pique. And yeah, it worked for them and they could have add the second. Predictable and effective as always during that circumstances (you are behind), but actually I was still quite impressed of that Barca bulid up in midfield- the ball reached to the box regularly but Espanyol had legs for last ditch tackles, also some of the moves were poorly finished and the decisions in the box were sometimes just very poor. generally, we are lacking the midfield recently, but it was not case yesterday, not even in the first half. I just won't buy that wagon that it was an awful, awful first half. It wasn't the best, obviously, but it was at least decent- controlled in some aspects, logical, and I at least could see the idea behind attacking moves.
Yeah, it took Messi's genuis to equalize and it was crucial to level at that moment, but the second half was telling- Espanyol could not run any more after 65 minutes and their backbone was broken. Messi gave an outstanding performance, I agree, but if you come back from 0-1 to win it by four, you really have to credit the team as well.
The performance still stresses the weakest link the current Barca has- Alves and the right flank in defensive end. It is really telling to see Alves 10-20 m behind his man while opposing striker is going one in one against Bravo...but you can't baysit him as well.
 

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