Barça 2 Shakhtar Donetsk 3
Tuesday, 09 December 08, 03:53 PM · Comments (19)
Sorry people, it seems that whenever I mention how many games we are from breaking a record we then lose that run. Today's defeat brought to an end a 20-match undefeated run, but the consolation is the game really meant very little and we were without all our best players. In fact you can almost guess the team Pep Guardiola has in mind for the Real Madrid game by looking at who didn't start today. We still finish top of the group but tonight we learn that two of our possible rivals in the last 16 are Chelsea and Inter Milan. Pep versus Mourinho would certainly be an interesting one!
I have to admit that I probably wouldn't have bothered to watch tonight's game if it wasn't for the blog, but I was also interested to see how the youngsters would do and today we saw a first team debut for Victor Vazquez who I have always liked when I've seen him before. He didn't have his best game unfortunately but was got more involved as the game went on forcing a couple of saves with long range efforts in the second half. We also saw Victor Sanchez back in the team partnering Piqué in central defence, I thought he had a pretty good game and he looked pretty comfortable bringing the ball out.
Best of the young players was Pedro Rodriguez who again demonstrated a large display of dribbling skillls including one magical run past four defenders near the end of the first half but he failed to find the target. Bojan Krkic struggled against the Shakhtar defence but he never gave up working hard to get into wide positions and trying to shoot whenever he got near goal, however, it wasn't to be his night. Sergio Busquets played in defensive midfield and was as usual involved in receiving a lot of fouls. He also scored Barça's second after a good control from Gudjohnsen's pass. Near the end the disgraceful Brandao (remember him from the first game?) was lucky not to see red after stopping Busquets with an elbow to the throat.
There was a disappointing return in goal for Albert Jorquera who hasn't played for nearly a year. His kicking was quite poor and he was also at fault with Shakhtar's second goal when he got nowhere near a free kick crossed from the left and Gladkiy headed home in front of Keita. Our keeper was not helped much by the defence and Martin Caceres was also disappointing tonight playing at right back. Shakhtar's first and third goals came down Barça's right with Caceres nowhere near to cutting out the crosses.
Of the other players, Sylvinho looked good going forward and he scored a smashing goal after playing a pass off Keita to put Barça back in the game at 1-2 on the hour. Hleb showed some good dribbling skills as usual and even managed a powerful shot that was parried from the keeper. Keita covered a lot of ground and managed to get forward often but he had no luck in the finish.
This was not a bad performance considering the circumstances, there were plenty of shots from outside the area but none of them troubled the keeper too much. We were basically punished for poor defending as Shakhtar began to realise that we were not as good as they had been led to believe. The game was generally dull for the first hour but came to life after Barça's first goal. Oh well, another record gone, who really cares? On Saturday we have the big one. Messi will be back, so will Xavi, and Eto'o and Alves, and Puyol, and Toure and Valdes, Marquez, Henry....
Barça: Jorquera 5; Caceres 5, Piqué 5.5, Victor Sanchez 6, Sylvinho 7; Victor Vazquez 5.5, Busquets 6, Keita 6; Pedro 6.5 (Gudjohnsen m75, 6.5), Bojan 5.5, Hleb 6.5.
Goals: m31 Gladkiy 0-1, m58 Gladkiy 0-2, m59 Sylvinho 1-2, m75 Fernandinho 1-3, m85 Busquets 2-3
Barça yellow: m49 Bojan
Attendance: 22,763
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19 Comments · Add yours
i care dat they've lost the record, wish it had been longer, we really would hav looked intimidating to some of our upcoming opponents
it was d defence that let up today
I cant say that I am surprised. Shaktar are no push over of a team, they are very aggressive and very strong and they defend well. Plus they play dirty. Even though we lost I think this was a great experience for all our kids who tried very hard today. Sure it would have been nice to keep the run going but really this season is about winning titles and Pep did the right thing resting everyone and not taking any risks in this game. We earned the right to take risks in this game by qualifying top in the last round. We lost in the end but as long as these are the games we lost then i will be happy. I also think a loss before the Madrid game will do the players good, even though i doubt there will be a single player on the pitch this Satruday who played today. There is too much euphoria around the club and the players and it s good to give everyone a reality check.
This Game ment nothing. I rather win all three then break a recored. I didn't see the game but 3-2 isnt a bad score line if you ask me. Even if you didn't have a game like Madrid coming up. It was the best chance for the subs to get a chance. So we lost big deal. Our subs needs to be as good as the first 11. Great Managment by Pip if you ask me.
To hell with the record. We are no less intimidating having lost a CL game with our B team.
The bottom line: Our starters are rested for El Classico, and WE ARE GOING TO MAKE MADRID BLEED THIS YEAR.
FORZA BARCA!!!
No big deal about the result. But only 22,000 people?
bojan was da bomb but resting messi and co was a dumb idea and it hit guardiola hard
resting messi n co was a dumb idea????? are u alright??
yeah the attendance was pathetic. . . .. economic conditions are hitting hard i guess
Not just the economic situation but also has to do with the fact that this was a meaningless game - people don't wanna spend money to watch useless games.
I'm pretty sad that we lost the record, but pep did the right thing, resting the key players and giving a chance to the next generation of Barca stars to show their skills and give them experience.
It was a good match under the circumstances - our B team vs a physical and strong Shaktar. Our best players were Pedro and Hleb.
I can't wait till the weekend, Its gonna be great.
looks like arsenal is leading europe in the best youngsters, and i thought we were
, but anyways a very poor defence last night,they played a high line without any pressure from midfield and got caught wanting several times, caceres was poor, and jorquera pep should just call him in his office and tell him 
"thanks for all your hard work through out the years son, but this is the end of the road for you here" .
the cross came in and he followed it without any attempt to jump for it what a waste of space
so the countdown to el classico beggins..........
blaugrana namibia:
The difference between Barça's youngsters and Arsenal's youngsters is that MOST of Arsenal's youngsters were POACHED from other clubs including Barça !!
Well, the record is gone but we shouldn't have lost to this team... Barca'... Still the best... Thumbs up Pep
blaugrana_namibia, Arsenal stole all of their youngsters from other clubs, they didn't put in any effort to develop them, whereas Barca develop their own young talent. I agree with you as I don't think that Jorquera is Barca material, it would be better for him to leave in January,
And WHY on earth was Jorquera captain? Sylvinho should have rather been captain on the night.
i dont think u can read much into this game. hleb looked pretty good but seemed to get over the occasion towards the end of it. overall i must say im not very impressed with this batch of youngsters, aside from busquets who i think has a big future. pedro has some talent with dribbling but overall doesnt look good enough, i dont think victor sanchez is good at all and vanchez was semi impressive. fact is not every youngster we produce is a xavi or iniesta . and frankly those guys were already impressing at 18 or 19. these guys are about 20 or 21 and not looking great, they are sergio garcia's in my opinion and sooner than later will find themselves at a betis with SG and damia too. but at the same time we were playing a champion of ukraine with a bunch of kids and did pretty well, so good on them. and yes brandao is an animal nic and when he came on i just knew he was going to do something sinister. that guy is just a piece of shit, no getting around it.
anyhow, no body has mentioned juande ramos at real madrid. and im telling u here that this TOTALLY changes the match of sat. a new manager can be such a crazy catalyst, especially his first few matches. from a game a thought we would totally crush and dominate the merengues, i see it being a real match now.
Most of the CL games are about over now and it looks like that Barça will face one of the following clubs in the next round:
Arsenal/Chelsea/ Lyon/ Inter Milan.
It is going to be a tough tie except for Lyon !!
Jorquera 4
Caceres 5
Piqué 5
Victor Sanchez 6
Sylvinho 6.5
Victor Vazquez 6
Busquets 6
Keita 6
Pedro 6
Bojan 5
Hleb 6
Gudjohnsen 6.5
i would rather face a strong team like chelsea or inter milan.....jus think about it, when we beat them dat will send a message in europe
@blaugrananamibia,
how do you know arsenal are leading in youngsters, their youngsters are overated
i also prefer we meet chelsea or inter now
blaugranaboy, check the champions league preview, we discussed it a bit their,