Barça 5 Atletico Madrid 2
Saturday, 19 September 09, 02:50 PM · Comments (27)
Barça ripped Atletico Madrid apart this evening with a superb display of attacking football in the first half which brought back memories of some of the best football from last season. Leo Messi responded to signing his new contract with a fantastic display, scoring twice and setting up another for Seydou Keita. Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Dani Alves added the other goals which see us retain our 100% record in La Liga this season.
After just 54 seconds Thierry Henry, who was obviously motivated after his substitution on Wednesday, turned on the left and fired in a terrific shot from 20 yards which hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced out. The shock did not wake Atletico up and just a minute later Barça took the lead. Maxwell received the ball from Valdés and played the ball up the touchline to Busquets, a quick look up and Busquets sent a perfectly weighted pass for Ibrahimovic, making a diagonal run, and our Swedish striker showed his class with a delightful flick past Roberto.
Barça were rampant, Xavi forced another save with a glancing header from Henry's cross, Ibrahimovic sent in a dangerous cross, and then Henry nearly found Messi at the far post with another cross. Then in the 16th minute Xavi sent a chipped pass to Messi who left the left back standing while just being played onside by the right back Perea, Messi controlled the ball on his chest running into the area and then with a beautiful little swivel of the hips dummied the goalkeeper before putting the ball in the open net to make it 2-0.
Atletico began to threaten after 20 minutes, Maxi rodriguez twice got into dangerous positions, once shooting straight at Valdés and the second time firing into the side netting after a rare mistake from Chygrynskiy. Chygrynskiy made up for his mistake with an excellent saving tackle on Jurado. Then in the 30th minute Messi was fouled over 30 yards out, Alves lined up to shoot, causing me to sigh at what I thought would be a wasted effort, but Alves hit a great low shot which bounced just in front of the keeper and the ball went in off the far post.
Diego Forlan had a good chance in the 37th minute after beating the offside trap, Valdés rushed out of his goal but didn't arrive but he did enough to force Forlan wide and when he tried to screw his shot back from the right wing Piqué had got back to cover. Barça added a fourth goal in the 41st minute after Ibrahimovic flicked a pass into Messi who swivelled 360º before crossing through the defender's legs to Keita who had an easy finish from five yards out.
Atletico pulled a goal back just before half time when Busquets header back towards goal was intercepted by Agüero who ran into the area and clipped the ball over the advancing Valdés. It was the first goal conceded by Valdés in 566 minutes which beat his previous best run of 542 minutes unbeaten.
The second half could not keep up such intensity but Barça continued to work hard and control the game, however, we lacked the killer instinct to take further advantage of our dominance. Our first chance of the second half didn't arrive until the 58th minute when Henry sent an excellent pass through to Messi but Roberto did just enough diving at Messi's feet. Meesi had another fantasy run through the middle but in the end there were too many defenders in the way.
As the game moved towards the end we bagan to show a lack of concentration at the back, especially after the excellent Piqué went off. Forlan finally pulled a goal back in the 84th minute to give Atletico hope but deep into injury time Messi made it 5-2 after an excellent combination down the right between Alves and Andres Iniesta.
This was a very encouraging performance but it should be noted that Atletico were poor defensively, they gave Xavi too much room to run the show and the marking at the back was often sloppy. However, Messi was on fire tonight while Xavi, Alves and Piqué all gave superb performances. Ibrahimovic took his goal with great class though he was a bit quiet especially in the second half, while the other new signings Chygrynskiy and Maxwell both fitted in well despite both making a mistake each in the first half which led to chances for Maxi Rodriguez. It was good to see Iniesta playing at Camp Nou again where he hasn't played since getting injured in May against Villarreal. He is still a bit short of match fitness but with time he will be back to his best. Rafa Marquez also returned for a few minutes at the end which will give us more defensive options in coming games. The team showed all the trademarks of last season with some excellent recuperation work, good off the ball movement and a very high rhythm of passing. If we continue in this manner we are going to enjoy this season and we can surely expect some more silverware over the course of the next nine months.
Barça: Valdés 6.5; Alves 9, Piqué 8.5 (Marquez m75, 6.5), Chygrynskiy 7, Maxwell 7; Xavi 9 (Iniesta m65, 6.5), Busquets 7.5, Keita 7.5; Messi 9.5, Ibrahimovic 7 (Pedro m85, --), Henry 7.5.
Goals: m2 Ibrahimovic 1-0, m16 Messi 2-0, m30 Alves 3-0, m41 Keita 4-0, m45 Agüero 4-1, m85 Forlan 4-2, m93 Messi 5-2
Barça yellow cards: m68 Chygrynskiy
Attendance: 75,928
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27 Comments · Add yours
5-2, look, thats a good result. the first 30 minutes was vintage stuff, memories of last year just flooding back. we showed tonight we still have that killer instinct.
BUT, even you are going to have to admit, he was absent from the game much much too much. i want to see him much more on the ball. again i sensed a weirdness with him and messi, i sensed 2 occasions messi didnt give him the simple, correct ball. again, hope im looking too deeply. though ibra did crack a smile or two
saying that, and man do i feel a tad spoilt, there are areas to seriously improve on. the 2nd half is something id rather like to forget as a fan, but as a coach i think it was an important 45 minutes because there were many areas that needed improvement. frankly in the last 20 min or so, i cant remember a team at camp nou having as much possession as atletico did. im not really going to go into the nitty gritty of the issus i spotted, i know there is one man out there who spotted them and will make sure the players know about them.
hilal, u must have felt quite vindicated with ibra's very sublime finish.
my major talking point of tonight is for sure, CHYGRYNSKIY. lord have mercy, i was not impressed. that boy can pick a pass, short, far, left foot, right foot, but DAMN IS HE SLOW. i was not loving him. sure he is 22 and had a home debut, maybe some nerves that can account for a few poor touches and a crazy back pass to VV. but nerves dont affect pace and i seriously cant get over his slowness. it was honestly ridiculous how he was simply holding onto aguero's shirt for dear life at one point. pique isnt the fastest himself, so i have my doubts over that center back pairing. he can ride bench quite often for my liking.
good performances from xavi, pique, alves, and maxwell, as well as another solid one from keita. messi was on fire, so lovely. that turn to set up keita was majestic.
but hey, 5-2. with shades of last year. im happy enough
I was hoping this game would serve as a nice confidence booster as it did last season. So it was
We are still not at our best, but we are definitely getting closer with each game. Athletico were poor, that cannot be denied, but we were awesome at times in that first half. Zlatans first goal was pure class and goals like that are exactly why we bought him. His contribution to the 4th goal was nice and he should have had a penalty too. He seemed to fade in and out of the game, but thats to be expected at this stage. Can't really complain when he gets 3 goals in 3 games and still hasn't really found his best form.
Messi and Xavi were both supreme tonight. Xavi just blows me away sometimes, his calmness on the ball is oddly disturbing. I always catch myself thinking he might lose the ball in tight situations, but he just outdoes his opponents every single time. He is simply a masterclass in football.
Messi is just Messi and words dont do him justice so i wont bother.
The defence at times was a little worrying, although understandable considering the circumstances. We had 2 noobs in the back 4 tonight and while I thought overall they played well, clearly they are still finding their way as well. Chryginsky is a bit slow for my liking, but he makes up for it with great positional awareness, height and strength. His distribution is exceptional as well. Me made a few mistakes, but its only his 2nd game so i can certainly forgive him for it. Pique is a monster, how i love that guy. 21 and one of the best defenders in the world. What a buy he was..
Great to see Iniesta getting back in there, though nowhere near his best yet. Just think, if this is what we can do 3rd game into the season, with the likes of Ibra, Maxwell and Chryginsky still adapting and Iniesta at about 60%...whats gona happen when we are in full flow in a few months time. Lets just all pray for no major injuries because that is the only thing i can see stopping us having another fantastic season
The most imoportant thing with Chygrynskiy I think is he is good on the ball which totally fits in with our overall game plan, Busquets and Toure are not particularly quick either but they are all confident on the ball. I thought it was a reasonably good home debut, despite the mistake which let in Maxi. The back pass to Valdés made me jump a bit but it was accurate and demonstrated confidence both in himself and in his team mate. And Valdés rarely cocks up with his feet these days.
HAHA Blau....i knew somebody was gona say something about Ibra. I will feel vindicated at the end of the season when he has 30 goals to his name
For now I am pleasantly satisfied. Like you said, he didnt show up enough in the game, but that is to be expected. If you expect a striker to walk into a team that performs like a well oiled machine and just slot in, then I'm afraid you are expecting too much. It will take time. Look at this way; the guy clearly hasn't really found his place in the team yet and the team haven't really learnt to take advantage of his strengths, but he has still notched 3 gaals in 3 games. Now just imagine what will happen when he does find his feet, when he understands his team mates better and vis versa.
Btw I noticed those missed passes from Messi as well, but i definitely wouldn't read anything into that. Thats just Messi being Messi and trying the spectacular. At that point we had won the game already so I think he was trying to give the crowd a good show. If it was 0-0 im sure he would have passed, Henry was open too and he didnt pass to him either.
yeah i saw that henry one too. its probably finding something where nothing is to be found.
lastly, forgot to say, i am officially declaring the refereeing in Spain to be the worst standard in Europe. its honestly atrocious. frustrates me to no end.
Oh and one other thing i forgot to mention...the refereeing...OMG. Is it me or does the quality of the refereeing in Spain seem to be getting worse. That ref was awful. No penalty, no red card, he let Athletico just kick us to death at times in the 2nd half. If the ref was half decent we might have won this by a lot more. Something definitely needs to be done.
I just have to : LINK
Pure class.
Huh what's going on? Been following this blog for a while now, and recently just started following another Barca blog
then when i checked out the comments, i see that some of the comments are identical to ones posted here. blaugranaboy is Barca4Life at the other blog?? and Felix from the other blog posted one of Hilal's paragraphs, while Tajh also repeats a line from Hilal. Finally, Nic's post (#3) appearts at the other blog under Anonymous as well...
LINK
is it just me or are the commentaries very similar? in fact, there are many sentences which are copy-pasted from here
Good game, hope to see improvements is some of the areas but as the players find their form, it will be beautiful.
Glad to see Valdes breaking his record.
poster 8:
totally agree though man, i reckon spain has overall the worst refs in europe, especially considering its one of the elite leagues. the refs in england are overall better, maybe italy too. u notice the difference though on international level, the representatives from spain are always terrible: this clown and also that moron (and madrista) perez burrull. only decent big game ref in spain is undiano mallenco.
oh my word. i cant believe that. i am not commenting on that blog. last week i saw they took titi's post and put it there, and then i also saw one of hilal's posts put there also. i just thought at the time those two had different user ID's over there, but i can guarantee that I AM NOT posting there. hilal/titi, u posting there? only thing i can guess is that the admin there is trying to get his blog going by adding comments to make it seem popular. which is totally pathetic.
hilal: why u copying all my comments??? lol. 4 min after i posted about the ref u came back and did the same thing.
Goals and highlights .
LINK
highlights - LINK
lol Blau...yeah i noticed your comment re refereeing as soon as i posted mine. Cannot say i am surprised that you picked up on it too. Quite ridiculous really.
Oh and I haven't posted on that blog before. I only really post here and over at LINK I use the same name though. Its a little weird that ppl would just copy and paste comments....well at least they like what we are saying
Oh btw Pep was not happy AT ALL with this game. Somebody on another blog was kind enough to translate his post match press conf, here are the highlights...
- He did not like the game at all. We did not control it.
- There were many errors that took place when it came time to take decisions.
- We ran too much and were too hasty in some actions.
- Our lines were too far apart, leading to many counterattacking opportunities for Atletico.
- We won on the basis of being direct and efficient but it could have gone either way. Settling on an up and down game is a tossup. We won today because we got “heads” but any other day we could have gotten “tails”.
- We won because of our intensity but we have to learn to control that intensity because we rushed too many plays.
- He praised the three forwards for their defensive work. “If we won, its thanks to them. Their defensive effort, especially Ibra and Titi, was barbarous (i.e. great)”.
- He also had special words for Ibra: “Ibra’s movement was scandalously good but the team did not find him. However, this is a process and every game he and the team understand each other better.”
Has anyone noticed lately that this blog "freezes up " from time to time ?
Even Iniesta was having a go at the ref, he should of knocked him over harder
Chygynskiy seemed a little slow yesterday but he was trying to keep up with Aguero who is'nt exactly the slowest player in the world so any defender would of found it difficult to stay with him. I think this guy is going to be a great defender for us over the coming years
@Hilal
I hope you are vindicated at the end of the season. I have to admit, Ibra looked better yesterday. So, I hope I am wrong!!!
Nice jab there buddy!!!
@Blaugranaboy
When I called for a centerback last Xmas...I never thought Chygry was what we would be getting. I share your sentiment on his speed. If he can be just a tad more aggressive, I think he will be fine!!!
yeah, i agree with pep....even though we won by a convincing scoreline, we played differently, very direct and efficient, athletico had d telling posession, 2nd half was worse....all the same, it just shows our class
with time, chygrynskiy will learn to make better use of positioning to counter his slow speed....
@Diatus
Hope you dont think i agree with that idiot commentator comparing Ibra to Eto'o. Thats something I dont like at all. Eto'o scored a mountain of goals for us that Ibra could never score. As I have said many times they both have their strengths and weaknesses and they are very different strikers. Eto'o should be respected for the Barca legend that he is. I hope this trend of comparing everything one striker does with the other goes away soon. Its not good for either of them.
No jab intended there mate. Just really love that finish
As for what we were saying regarding refereeing in Spain Blaugranaboy, well it doesnt really look like the EPL is any better to be honest. Some of the refereeing today, in two huge games, was awful. Both coincidentally helping the "top 4" team. Man City conceded in 96th minute of 4 minutes of stoppage time and Chelsea escaped such an obvious penalty. Although our ref yesterday was particularly disgraceful. I think sometimes they feel bad for the opposition so they just let them get away with things.
as much as i don't like plugs on other people's blogs, i got to post a link to a youtube video.
LINK
the BEST soccer highlight video I've ever seen, featuring who else but the MESSIah.
FYI it's not mine, just only had like 6000 views
hey...i have come here to apologize for the misunderstanding concerning the plagiarism of this article u wrote.
Apparently the writer(Mario) who i had given the job to cover the previews and reviews of matches came here and copy and pasted your work on many occasions.I had to prior knowledge of this until i read your comment and i assure you it would never happen again.
Most posts i wrote myself but with time restrictions i recruited his help but now i regret this decision.
Once again i am truly sorry........
Hey where is our Captian ? Is Pep resting him or is it because all that transfer talk ???
what is this? a battle of the blogs!!!! reading your apology tells me that I shouldn't even bother checking out your blog. I think I say this for many on here. We will stay put for now but thamks for the offer!
Hello Nic,
Need your help. We are collecting some signatures from La Liga fans in Indian Subcontinent for the telecast of La Liga here. Please help us with this. If you can create a post asking La Liga fans in Indian subcontinent to sign for it, it will be of great help.
Link - LINK
@Diatus
It is not a blog, simply just a video clip that I liked. Like I said, its not mine, I have no video editing skills. Just with all the trash highlight videos, I enjoyed one that actually shows a Barca player without all the annoying crap.
If you dont want to see that then thats your perogative.