Barça 3 Mallorca 1
Saturday, 03 January 09, 12:21 PM · Comments (22)
Barça suffered more than expected to win a bad tempered game with Mallorca. Barça went a goal down early on before Thierry Henry equalized on the half hour. Then Andres Iniesta came on as a second half substitute after two months out injured to score the vital second goal with fifteen minutes remaining and then Toure Yaya scored one of the goals of the season in injury time to wrap things up.
Pep Guardiola gave a place to Victor Sanchez at centre half which meant Carles Puyol moved to right back in place of Dani Alves who started on the bench. Alex Hleb came in for Leo Messi who was rested and watched the game from the directors box with the Argentinian team manager Diego Maradona who had flown in to watch Messi play.
The game was very slow to get started today with nothing of note until the 12th minute when Eric Abidal intercepted a long ball in front of Victor Valdés but he had time to recover as the ball went past the goalkeeper towards goal. Barça were looking sloppy and lacking in ideas, the only danger coming when a long ball from Toure on the right found Eto'o at the far post but his side-footed volley went wide.
Mallorca stunned Camp Nou by taking the lead in the 15th minute: Toure lost the ball on the half-way line to Aduriz who then flicked the ball past Victor Sanchez and beat him for speed before chipping the ball over Valdés into the net. Barça struggled to respond and it wasn't until the 27th minute that Barça came close when Xavi's corner was met with a terrific drive from Gudjohnsen that clipped the top of the crossbar. Barça then came to life, two minutes later Toure shaped to shoot from outside the area but instead sent a pass into Puyol on the right side of the area and his cross was touched back by Eto'o to Toure whose shot was saved by Lux's foot as he dived the other way. In the 31st minute another corner from Xavi on the right was flicked on by Puyol to Henry who stretched to control with his right foot at the far post before firing the ball in off the far post with his left from a tight angle.
After the equalizer it seemed that Barça then relaxed again and some players got more involved with niggling exchanges and arguing with the referee, Henry was booked for a silly exchange with Josemi. Just before half time Xavi sent in a fine ball to Eto'o but Lux was quick to come out and block the striker's shot.
The second half began much the same as the first half though Eto'o had a goalbound shot blocked in the 49th minute. Marquez was booked and then was lucky not to see a second yellow after a foul on Aduriz, but then five minutes later Aduriz was lucky that the ref didn't see him deliberately jab Marquez in the eye. The niggling didn't help the game but at least it kept the crowd noisy.
The game started to swing in Barça's favour after the introduction of Alves and Iniesta in place of the disappointing Victor Sanchez and Hleb. Iniesta had a shot charged down in the 70th minute but five minutes later he scored the all important second: Xavi shot from the edge of the area and the ball deflected into the path of Gudjohnsen who looked to be in an offside position, when everyone expected a shot from Gudjohnsen he fired a cross to the far post for Iniesta who was just onside to stab the ball gleefully home. Two Mallorca players were booked for protesting and to be fair I think Gudjohnsen was offside; however, they did not deserve to take anything from the game for their constant timewasting and negative tactics.
In the 89th minute Josemi was sent off for his second yellow when he could only stop Iniesta through foul means and then in injury time Toure scored to seal the points. Barça played a long possession move which ended with Eto'o finding Toure inside the area and the big man jinked between three defenders before firing past Lux.
This was not a pretty performance from Barça and there were times especially in the first half that the passing was sloppy. Unfortunately we do seem to notice the absence of Messi, but with Iniesta and Alves on the field we improved noticeably. Before people criticise Guardiola for his team selection we should remember that it is a long season and we need to take care of the players, on Tuesday we have a difficult cup match with Atletico Madrid and it is important to use the entire squad if we want to challenge on all fronts. The victory puts us 13 points clear at the top, for now. Hopefully we can continue our incredible away victories run on Tuesday, who knows: we could be on for the treble this season!
Barça: Valdés 5.5; Puyol 7.5, Marquez 6.5 (Sylvinho m71, 6), Victor Sanchez 5.5 (Alves m56, 7), Abidal 7; Xavi 7, Toure 6.5, Gudjohnsen 6; Hleb 5.5 (Iniesta m67, 7.5), Eto'o 6, Henry 7.
Goals: m15 Aduriz 0-1, m31 Henry 1-1, m75 Iniesta 2-1, m92 Toure 3-1
Barça yellows: m36 Henry, m49 Marquez, m65 Xavi, m73 Alves
Attendance: 60,399
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22 Comments · Add yours
We did what good teams do. Grind out wins when we have difficult opposition. Not much else to say on this except we got the points and we can look forwards to the cup clash this week.
13pts clear at the moment...woo!
Goals
LINK
Toure's goal was absolute genius. Great way to erase his mistake that lead to the first goal. That was a messi-esque goal!
The set plays were crazy and actually tactical not something like "hey I kick ball, if you are close to it, jump!".
Henry's goal was really nice too. Great control and finish with his off foot.
Did anybody miss Iniesta's dribbling? That man made the defenders, especially josemi look like elementary school playground kids. Really delighted to have him back.
mallorca played so cheap with 9 men in front of the box.
Hleb is very disappointing as a starter but whenever he is used as a sub he has been brilliant. What if Pep uses him instead of Gudjohnsen? He is a better dribbler and passer than gudi (not taking any credit away from gudjohnsen, he is great)
Good teams come back from one goal down and clinch victory. Great teams come back from one goal down, clinch victory then keep attacking to ensure victory.
i cant believe i missed the match, i have been so worked up this week including today that i slept off before, during and after the match, woke up like 10 mins after the match
i've read conflicting reports about the players performance, expect your comments on the match so i can get a perspective
shahenshah:
i also believe hleb should be in the midfield esp against teams that defend with 10 men against us, hw will be more useful there
Good win from our boys tonight. IT may not have been the prettiest of games but hey what do you expect when the opposition stick 9 men behind the ball?!? Considering the fact that they just came back from a 2 week break I think it was a good performance against a team that played well defensively and a keeper who made some good saves. We looked a bit rusty from the break and I think we will need a few games to get in full flow again. These are the games we need to be winning though, the ones where we could potentially slip up, and we are winning them.
I dont agree that we depend on Messi too much, as the commentators in the game were saying. We played a good game and created more than enough chances without him today. A sharper Eto'o tonight and we bag at least one more goal. Sure it looks like we miss him when he doesnt play, he is the best player on the planet and no team could look the same with him than they would without him.
What to say about our man Yaya.....simply outstanding....i really love that guy. For a player to be such a great destroyer and at the same time have the capacity to score the goal that he did, well it just leaves me a bit dumbfounded. Any talk of even considering his sale must be rubbish because no manager in his right mind would let go of a player like that.
Its going to be great to have Iniesta back. Most underrated player on the planet. I know ppl here in the UK who dont even think he is "that good". They will find out soon enough.
All in all a good start to the New Year.....here is to 2009 being the treble winning year for Barca!
I bet all those talks of messi-dependency would not have surfaced if Iniesta was not injured. Messi and Iniesta are the best dribblers in the team. When passing lanes are blocked off, their close control and ability to dribble around multiple defenders allows barcelona to negate such staunch defences and find a way through.
If messi and iniesta play as our wingers at the same time.........its game over
Excellent goal by our main main yaya, I watch the game on Al Jazeera sports and the english commentator seems to really have a go at him in every game. He did shut up when Yaya scored the stunner, really classy goal.
I hate to bring up things from the past, but our goalie made a few fumbles again. i am not going to give him crap coz he has been amazin this season, its probably just rustiness (i hope).
But the man that brought me joy was iniesta. Oh when he came on around the 60 min, i remembered the Rijkaard era, where in the 2005- 2006 season he would bring iniesta in around the same time and he would work his magic.
We saw that all over again, we have really missed him, he is purely world class.
For a powerful destroyer, Toure has pretty nimble feet, his goal was amazing - how he ran between defenders before blasting the ball in the back of the net.
The game was turned, when Gaurdiola introduced Alves and Iniesta - what a game for him!
i was very happy with the 3 points. these post-break games are always tricky. and they are far trickier for a team like us than mallorca. its much tougher for barca to click into their magic attacking style than it takes mallorca to set up camp at the back and defend for their lives. that being said i will commend aduriz for his goal, it was excellent tacken, from the nutmeg to the burst of pace and great finish.
i thought the players in general deserved extra praise. my man of the match may suprise some, but i would nominate abidal. he was almost perfect all game long, besides one unforunate slip in the 2nd half near the box. his speed and pace was instrumental covering the very slow marquez and sanchez center back pairing. then when he switched into center back, he again played really well.
otherwise, titi, maybe u should start putting some money aside for my present. lol. i really could not have been happier for henry. his finish was truly excellent and people should note that. that control and speedy finish is a really world class skill. otherwise his body language and movement in general just looked determined and hungry. its safe to say he will never be my favorite player, i will never chant for him as loudly as others, but tonight he did very well.
the third choice is obviously yaya, who is easily the best DM in the world. his tackling and anticipation to break play combind with silky smooth passing and touches is a RARE combination. i was very happy for him to score because he has been trying for so long.
on a bad note, i thought before tonight sanchez wasnt good enough and he only confirmed my beliefs further. his experiment in center back was a dissmal failure and i hope to never see him there again. he is shockingly slow on top of it. his passing isnt even so great, he was constantly passing back when he could have gone forward.
but overall, it was a much tougher game than most thought, so great W!
shahenshah,
I thought ," hey I kick ball, if you are close to it, jump! " was hilarious. Of course, we don't want to see that style of play at Barça , ever !!
It was nice to see Iniesta back. He adds style and class to the left wing. We won but let's not get around the FACT that Barça without Messi tend to be unimpressive and struggle against average teams. There is no excuse for Messi to miss any games unless he is imjured or physically unfit. I'm sure he can play a half even if he is not 100% !!
Here is a good site for game highlights. It is very extensive and the quality is good: LINK
Aduriz's goal clearly showed a weakness in our central defense. I think I have already been very clear on the topic.
This is Pep's poorest game when it comes to coaching. He wasted 2 subs on the defense. I was left speechless by those moves. It didb't make any sense at all.
We were very lucky to have won this game because Mallorca just lacks backbone in the midfield.
Our first goal was a clear offside.
On the positive side, it was good to see Iniesta back and Yaya score a fantastic goal.
Nice win.
"Wins like this are better than 5-0 wins."
very true.
Toure brings a much needed physical side to our "Nice guy's" football.
I still dont understand why Sanchez would be favoured to Caceres!
He looked so shaky the whole game.
the goal was arguably his fault.
nice win though.
I was watching the game in a large enough crowd where filled with Barca haters and just one true fan.
they laughed us to scorn when we went behind.
guess we laughed last sha'.
good to see
Iniesta back
I personaly wanted him to start the game.
Like ShaHenSha said, Messi and Iniesta playing RW and LW in the same match is a killing combination. Who will the oposing defenders mark?
plus Xavi the Ballet Dancer pulling the strings from mid
We are really blessed with a good team this season. plus a Coach with so much Character and perfectionism, it should be hard to loose things as long as they continue working hard.
@Diatus:
Happy new year, man.
I'm not disagreeing with your assessment on Barca's defensive strength, but I think Aduriz's goal better reflects Yaya's tendency to occasionally give the ball away in dangerous positions and Sanchez's inexperience (and lack of pace!) more than anything else. And Sanchez, "polyvalent" though he may be, is not a true central defender, so his mistakes aren't really reflective of our central defense either. In my opinion, Pep should not play Sanchez in defense, period.
As for the two subs, I agreed with Pep's removal of Marquez, because Rafa was going to get himself a second yellow card at any second. Alvez played more like a right midfielder than a defender after he came on.
But, yes--that goal was offsides. We should also have had a penalty for a handball in the first half.
I am happy for Yaya's goal. I hope he continues to shoot when he gets into the box...instead of stopping his dribble, freezing while he looks for options, and eventually passes it to a defender.
Aritz Aduriz scored a great goal, good job my ex-hero, bilbao fans still didnt forget you and you'll always be in our heart and hope for more good things for you at Mallorca, keep up the good work
Hilal:
I was surprised that there are football fans who actually don't think that Iniesta is " that good " . I'm just curious if there is a player in the EPL who is a better LMF/LW than Iniesta !!
FCB-Holland:
It is quite shocking isnt it and I doubt there is an LMF/LW in the EPL who is as good as Iniesta but it just shows the ignorance of some of the English fans. Most of them live in a fantasy where the EPL is by far the best league in the world and most of them do not pay attention to football outside of the EPL. I have to say a lot of it is instigated by Sky/BBC who are constantly praising the league for no apparent reason. I watch the EPL every week and to be honest most of it is boring and one dimensional. Just goes to show how easily the media can skew reality. Listening to CL commentating here you would think no other team besides the English 4 can win the CL. Only Barca can "challenge" the top four in England.....its laughable really!
Hey Nic Glad to see This site is working. I had a problem, the old link expired or something. Just today I had an idea to log on to OleOle.com. Anyway, The game yesterday wasn't the best. Yet its is just after the Winter break most of the players are still not back to there top form. But Yaya Torue's goal was simply a master peace. I'm also enjoying Henry's Comeback ! Henry is getting back to his Gunner form day after day, Match after match. Also This might be way too late but Happy New Year and Merry Christmas !
Hilal:
I doubt if Iniesta would be bothered too much if most fans in England don't think too highly of him. Even Diego Maradona , perhaps the greatest player of all time, is demonized by the English fans at every opportunity !!
those english fools who parise the likes manu,chelsea,arsenal ect are all stupid ppl,and all who thinks the epl is the best leauge in the world are just dum, 4 me the worst injuries happen in epl and the most boring football 2. for me spain and italy are the best leauges in the world dats y every player always want 2 play in spain or italy and not england ex. helb and soon 2 be ronaldo. barca4life.
@ bequaiman
English fans are not necessarily stupid, and their clubs are not crap. Like Hilal said, it is the media that bigs up the EPL, just so they get more ratings for their games and their ads generate more revenue. I love watching Iniesta play. I think he is a mixture between Xavi and Messi, with Messi's bribbling and Xavi's passing. But reputations take time to build and Iniesta has only been at this World-Class level for two seasons imo. He will get there, but yes, I think he one of THE class players in the world.
Regarding the performance, I am still sometimes worried by the defence. At certain points in this game (and others), I could see big teams with intelligent players making us pay more for little gaps. I hope it is because these are against smaller clubs I notice it more, but just Im stillnot 100% convinced with the defence but then again Sanchez was very poor unfortunately - you cannot get nutmegged like that
Midfeild was quieter without Alves and Messi providing width and Eto was very poor today. Henry gave him a through ball from an overhead kick lol and he was poor and he missed a sitter 2 minutes before Mallorca scored which pissed me off to be honest. But he is an excellent player and just had a quiet game, Im sure its nothing to worry about. Henry as blaugranaboy said was great, finished with a "weaker" foot which I genuinely dont think he has to be honest. Its good to see players enjoying themselves especailly after the crap people put him through last year.
A note on Toure Yaya. He is as important as anyone. He is absolute class. Brilliant
This Barca CAN play without Messi. ANY team in the world would be worse without him, but Barca win. Thats all that matters. Top of the league!! Whooohooo!!
I'm sure English fans appreciate good football just as any true fans worldwide. Os course, there are those who prefer the style pracices in the EPL and all other British leagues. It is fast paced, physical and action packed. There are many highly gifted English players but foreign players seem to dominate the top clubs. Nothing wrong with that . It is not really fair to say that the EPL is crap even if you find the style of play unappealing . It is equally wrong to say that the EPL is the most superior league in the world and the rest is pure crap !! I did not grow up watching English football but I always enjoyed South American football.
too much complains
