Barça 1 Racing 1
Saturday, 13 September 08, 09:01 PM · Comments(48)
With just two games played in La Liga, Pep Guardiola will already be under pressure after Barça failed to beat a well organized Racing Santander at Camp Nou tonight. Barça dominated possession but suffered to break through the Racing defence, and after Leo Messi gave Barça the lead from the penalty spot, Racing equalized with their first shot of the game with just fifteen minutes remaining.
Pep Guardiola surprised everyone with his team selection giving starts to youngsters Sergio Busquets in the central midfield role and Pedro Gonzalez on the left, both players performed well and showed they could have futures at the club. It was expected that Messi wouldn't start after arriving yesterday from a long journey, but alongside him on the bench were Iniesta and Bojan Krkic while Hleb got a start on the right of the attack.
After fifteen minutes Hleb and Pedro swapped wings and the first danger came when Hleb combined with Keita, broke in on the left of the area but his cross was cleared to Keita who mishit his shot. Then on 18 minutes Sergio Busquets found Pedro on the right but his low shot caused no problem for Toño the Racing keeper diving low to his left. Keita then had a header saved from a Xavi corner but the chances started to dry up. On 36 minutes Hleb was fouled and had to come off with an ankle injury, first reports say he could be out for two to three weeks but he will undergo tests tomorrow to find the true extent of the injury.
Barça almost took the lead at the start of the second half when Alves seemed to be looking to cross but the ball drifted and ended up bouncing off the crossbar. Pedro had a great chance after 57 minutes after Iniesta crossed from the left, but his shot from 10 yards was stopped by Toño. Two minutes later Messi came on in place of Keita and Barça began to create more danger though they had problems to find the final shot. Messi's dinked free kick in the 67th minute almost fooled the keeper, and a minute later Barça had an extended attack with no fewer than three chances to score. First Eto'o couldn't finish Alves's dangerous cross, then Sergio had a shot blocked, and finally Iniesta sent Messi into the arera, as Toño came out Messi clipped the ball across goal but the ball only reached Alves at the far post with a tight angle and when he pulled the ball back again the defence intervened.
Barça's insistance finally paid off when in the 70th minute Alves again got down the right to cross and Racing defender Fernandez stuck out an elbow to deflect the ball away and the ref blew for a penalty. Messi stepped forward and coolly sent Toño the wrong way. Barça's joy turned to despair soon after when Garay's low free kick was deflected past Valdés by Johnathan Pereira. Some will undoubted blame Valdés who was diving to cover Garay's shot, but the responsibility really lies with the defence for not blocking out Pereira.
Guardiola risked everything by putting on Bojan for Puyol with eight minutes left, but Barça could only win corners which all came to nothing, while at the other end Pereira battled with Alves and Abidal in search of a winner for Racing.
Barça looked slightly better in the second half especially when Alves got forward on the right. However, the finishing is still not there and Barça seem to lack other options as the long shots and corner kicks were again very disappointing. We'll have to stop this habit of conceding a goal to the other team's only shot of the game. At least after today we don't have to wait two weeks until the next game, and on Tuesday at home to Sporting Lisbon we will surely see an improvement in our finishing.
Barça: Valdés 6, Alves 6.5, Piqué 5.5, Puyol 6 (Bojan m82, 6), Abidal 5; Xavi 6.5, Sergio Busquets 6.5, Keita 5.5 (Messi m59, 6); Hleb 6 (Iniesta m38, 6.5), Eto'o 5, Pedro 6.5.
Goals: m71 Messi (pen) 1-0; m76 Pereira 1-1
Barça yellow: Iniesta m88.
Attendance: 54,678
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this was a good match by barca.... i stil believe they are just jelling.....they just need to step up the intensity from the beginning of the match...i'm sure guardiola's takin note.....d only problem i had with the team was abidal
as for the comments, 'sack guardiola', 'guardiola is inexperienced', 'guardiola is this, is that'.........u guyscan carry slogans to the next match to express urselves....wat kinda fans are these?
blaugranaboy, i know u well enough so i'm not surprised we think the same....
just wanna see as nic, diatus, namibia n co feel
blaugrana boy--- u r right!! but its just really frustrating...so many chances but we cant finish, i was seriously crying/laughing at the same time, some of u may know what i mean lol
its not totally guardiola's fault..but, i am confused..why it is so hard to score and hard to defend well especially ABIDAL hes sucks!!!! get him off and give sylvinho the place..i am sick of abidal and..Henry!!!
its really not that confusing at all why we struggle to score. its a tactic called "parkign the bus", where EVERY team we play puts 10 men behind the ball the entire game and hope to counter. and why we concede its a tactic called "attack abidal because we will definetely mess up, no doubt again it", and thats what teams do
u people just need be patient.....give them some time...its not as if they've bn playin d same way in dis recent matches....there's obvious improvement
48 Comments · Add yours
Racing had 1 goal from 1 shot,dissappointed and what the hell is going on...!!
ive already commented quite a lot on the preview, but really people need to NOT blow this game out of proportion. we should have had a goal with iniesta PK which was clear and tono pulled off some ridiculous reflex saves. im not excusing the game as a whole, especially first half, but the signs are not all gloom and doom. (except for abidal!!!!!!!!!, why is he so bad)
and there are already the "FIRE GUARDIOLA" camp. he has had 4 real games to coach!!!! (3 in my mind, not wisla away). tonight i was happy with him. he was brave playing pedro and busquet and they both looked very good, especially busquet. and he dropped henry, and maybe that is what is needed to get him going again, otherwise January to Man Citey, PLZ take him. guardiola was brave to play the youngsters he believes in and made some very positive substituions to try and change the game. 2nd half there were moments we looked a good side going forward. and frankly, if abidal wasnt such a waste of skin and bones a three back should have easily held a team that attacked with MAX 2 players.
so what to do now? yes we have a problem, every team, home or away is going to play us 10 men behind the ball. i think we need a strong central, tall forward, but at the same time i really like etoo and i would hate to see him made useless. but i honestly belive that if the players play at a fast pace, always running into space we can still create space. there were times tonight alves had a good space on the right and looked dangerous.
everyone please be patient, at least for a while. remembe one frank rijkaard. first season, december we were 15th place, 7 pts from relegatoin. everyone said "fire frank, he sucks, he has no experience, fire laporta". that yr we finished 2nd after 23 games unbeaten, next yr league, next yr CL and league. im not saying pep is going to do this, but at least give him a chance. no one here can guarantee he will do it or not, but at least let him TRY.