Copa Del Rey: Atletico Madrid 1 Barça 3
Tuesday, 06 January 09, 03:08 PM · Comments (28)
Diego Maradona came to Camp Nou on Saturday to see Leo Messi play but sadly for him Messi was rested for the game against Mallorca. However, Maradona stayed in Spain and was fortunate enough to be present in the Vicente Calderon to see a display from Messi that he himself would have been proud of. Messi scored all three goals tonight in Barça's victory and he fully deserved the ovation from the opposing fans when he was substituted with eight minutes remaining. In the bar where I watched the game everyone also applauded and chanted Messi's name as he left the field.
Pep Guardiola made ten changes to the team that beat Mallorca with only Toure Yaya continuing in the team. Atletico began the game at a frenetic pace looking to catch Barça's defence off guard and twice in the first two minutes Jose Pinto substituting for Victor Valdes, was forced into action. However, Barça soon took control of the game: in the seventh minute Busquets won the ball and fed Messi who perhaps was unlucky not to earn a penalty from Heitinga's clumsy challenge. A minute later Keita headed goalwards from Messi's corner but Coupet saved diving to his left. In the 11th minute Simao shot straight at Pinto from wide on the left but a minute later Barça took the lead. Alves found Messi on the right, the Argentinian played the ball back inside to Alves whose delightful flick sent Messi scurrying into the area before beating Coupet at the near post.
There was a tremendous rhythm to the game but few teams can play at such speed and imprecisions began to enter Atletico's game which led to frustration and four first half yellow cards for the home team. Messi and Alves ran rings around the Atletico defenders on the right who could only stop the pair with foul play. Toure and Busquets dominated in midfield and Barça were unlucky to go in at half time with only a one-goal lead.
Barça continued to control the game in the second half. Toure had a looping header bounce of the top of the crossbar but then in the 56th minute Iniesta found Alves on the right and his cross towards Messi looked like a certain goal until Heitinga tripped Messi earning himself a straight red card and gifting Barça a penalty. Messi stepped up and sent Coupet the wrong way to make it 0-2.
As is often the case the team down to ten men responded well to their numerical inferiority. In the 69th minute a corner from the right was missed by Caceres and Ujfalusi got in front of Alves to head home from close range. Barça deserved more for their superiority and Messi once more rose his game to score another. The shame was that his third goal did not come after an electrifying run past three defenders, his shot cannoning off the crossbar, but as play continued Iniesta crossed back into Messi who was just onside and controlling with his back to goal he turned and slipped with great speed past Coupet before firing past a defender on the line to complete his hat-trick.
Atletico put all their pride into trying to pull a goal back but Pinto denied Simao with a fine diving save near the end. But on the balance of play tonight it would have been unjust for Barça to have won by only one goal.
Apart from the brilliant Messi there were also excellent performances from Dani Alves and from Sergio Busquets who was inexhaustable in midfield. Pinto also deserves credit for a commanding game between the posts. It was also tremendous to see that the rotations did not affect the team performance, at the moment it seems we could put out two completely different teams and finish first and second in everything. The only real disappointment tonight was Martin Caceres who was beaten a couple of times in defence and still looks below average to play for Barça. The two goal advantage should almost certainly be enough to see Barça through to the last eight of the competition. The second leg is next Wednesday at Camp Nou.
Barça: Pinto 7.5; Alves 8, Caceres 5, Piqué 7, Sylvinho 6.5; Busquets 8, Toure 7.5, Keita 7, Messi 10 (Pedro m82, 6), Bojan 6, Iniesta 7.
Goals: m12 Messi 0-1, m58 Messi (pen) 0-2, m69 Ujfalusi 1-2, m80 Messi 1-3.
Barça yellows: m68 Caceres, m70 Busquets.
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28 Comments · Add yours
i disagree, i thought caceres was the best defender tonight, he made a few really important tackles.
what a majestic performance by Barcelona.....Lionel Messi is the greatest....I haven't seen GOD, but I can imagine he is the closest thing to GOD on Earth...Camp Nou is my church, Barcelona is my religion, and Lionel MEssi is my GOd....i was also pissed that his third goal didn't come from that amazing run, but I m glad he got his deserved hatrick..and yea, Messi definitely deserves the 10....He was unstoppable...
Dani Alves was immense as well...I would give him a 9 for today...
To anyone who still thinks that Caceres is a CenterBack, please go to www.nutjob.crazy to register.
I said it before and I am saying it again:"All donkeys dream of being horses"...Caceres is a R/L back. He lacks size, he lacks size, he lacks size and he was beaten on that goal. Sinama Pongole could have scored another goal on the onset...because of delayed reaction...sorry to say it...I WAS RIGHT!!!
agree with fcb88 but
caceres wasn't the best tonite...but he was something
from the tackles i can see can turn into sumthing in future..
his game reading was poor though..
My next Barca shirt may have to be Busquets instead of Xavi (I've got like 9 Xavi shirts in my wardrobe)
Goal Highlights
LINK
MESSI IS A BEAST, A BEAST IS MESSI
i can't say anything else about that guy
the whole team was impressive apart from their relaxation in the 2nd half which irritated me a little
and i must join fcb888 n dviduka in comin to the defence of caceres who showed improvement on his previous performances, enough tackles to convince me he's a good member of the squad and one for the future, y'all can hav your opinions bt i'm sure guardiola sees the signs too
being a central defender is not only about siza, caceres is 1.82m and the only defender to have won the world footballer of the year is even 1.76m(possibly a dwarf), need more?
i also wonder what maradona will be thinkin
@Layi
com'on man, you really think that Caceres is from the same mold as Puyol, Pique and Marquez?
we would not have taken that goal had Puyol been positioned exactely where caceres was when he jumped for th ball...guarantee!!!
diatus:
caceres is our FOURTH choice centreback(fifth in reality), he's young and definitely still learnin so he's definitely alright for me, just take a look at some teams so-called 1st choice defenders to understand how lucky we are to have him as our fourth/fifth choice
puyol might not have missed the header but might have missed another tackle, no defender is waterproof, u cant tell me caceres has not improved on his previous performance
about the match:
i also forgot to mention yaya toure's professionalism in abandoning his attacking instincts to make sure the midfield keep their shape, the midfield trio of keita-busquets-toure is as insurmountable as it gets, definitely useful
hey maverick.......messi isn't the closest thing to god on earth...........HE IS GOD!!and what about the depth of the team...
we pull out 4th 5th string defender and we only concede 1 goal ...
and layibiyi ..please wait another decade before comparing PUYOL and caceres......i give you a 100% guarantee puyol couldv'e made any tackle caceres made....i am not sayin caceres is bad but please wait before you compare him to our great captain
messiah10:
,
only the dumbest person in the world would compare puyol and caceres and i dont think i'm that person
i was just tryin to say puyol can also make a mistake(his type of mistake, not a caceres-like mistake), my bad if it sounded another way
my point to diatus is that we cant afford to have 4 puyols in our team, thats really unbalanced, 2 'puyols', i 'cacer-yol' and 1 'caceres' is a luxury i appreciate, i hope u understand
Caceres played good today, really the goal came down to caceres lack of experience he was pushed put of contention. Although Caceres remained consistant and really this time his tackles were much improved and that shows that he is already improving even with the lack of minutes. That is really rare, maybe he is starting to get a few pointers from puyol and marquez.
Wow Nic, this is the first time I have seen you give out a 10. Then Messi's performance screamed perfection. The way this fellow dribbles around everyone is a pure joy to watch. All his goals were amazing. Even his penalty! He took the spot kick with a calm and ice cold demeanour, tricking the goalie into guessing the wrong direction. Then in his third goal, he made the goalie look like a bigger fool. The defence and the goalie were completely humbled by the 21 year old today.
Caceres does have some potential though. His perfectly timed lunge inside the box, to stop an atletico player from an easy opportunity to score was very courageous and impressive. He got all ball. Sadly the resulting corner-kick lead to the goal.
Busquet's makes the most amazing one-touch passes. Thanks to him the ball moves up the field so quickly. His positional sense when it comes to defence is quite competent as well, seeing how he was able to block a pass or dribble with ease.
hahaha usually I see xavi making amazing back heel passes in games but without his presence today, the players took it as a responsibility to execute back heel passes. Everyone was doing them today. Dani Alves' backheel to set up messi was the best no doubt.
Iniesta appeared invisible throughout the first half but whenever he touched the ball, he didnt make a mistake. I blame that on xavi's absence because he makes sure to use the whole width of the pitch. Iniesta saw more of the ball in the second half though and made some genius plays.
Wow 3-1 with a b/defensive looking team....I was glad I missed my calculus test lol
The most impressive statistic about Messi is that he is the only player who has scored in all three competitions this season. He has also overtaken eto'o (1
as the overall top scorer in the team with 19 goals. Add the fact that he is only two assists behind team leader xavi (14) and one cant help but bask in the messiah's brilliance.
Pinto really impressed me today. He came off his line to snatch the ball away so many times. He eve snatched the ball away from pongolle's feet too! I would have to say he is more aggressive than Valdes.
i think inesta was also more conserved because he was the captain, also the way alves and messi were colonising the right flank, there was no need to bring it to the left....busquets surprised me a lot of times, he has started showing increasing awareness, composure and resourcefulness that i never expected from him,
pinto also showed he's a good backup, he did what was neccessary
Guardiola know what he gonna do..
If you're be the coah i dont think we can won this game..
Cacceras is good centerback anyway..
We must win any competition!
Not just the la liga,Champions Cup also Copa Del Rey..
Nic - how much of a disappointment was Bojan?
I'm getting a bit worried about his big fade out this season....I know he is still young but I'm concerned for the lad at the moment.
Hi Darren - I wrote an article on Bojan expressing my concern a couple of months ago - LINK -
However, I don't think he had a bad game yesterday though he wasn't seen too often. It is complicated for him after a good first season that raised expectations. He is still very young and hopefully he will develop into a very good player.
It is extrememly difficult for Bojan atm. Last season there was no pressure - he couldnt be any worse then the team was so was free. This season he is against the Worlds form player Messi, a free scoring Eto, a once great again Henry and a ridiculously talented Iniesta. The chances of him playing are slim. I think he needs what Arsenal did with Carlos Vela - loan him out to a top league side. He is not like that dog Dos Santos and will say "no im not going out on loan bla bla", he will do his best whereever he is. His development will carry on at Barca tho as anyone training with Barca's forwards would have to improve!!
He is the best and I am so glad I got my prediction wrong!! the home leg should be a good thrashing now if they come to attack, maybe another hat rick for Leo!!
On the performance: MEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSIIIII!!
And no, I dont think he is God lol, but he is the worlds best player for sure now! I signed him on Football Manger Live, I am the envy of everyone
I just hope Pep keeps everyone grounded. the season is very young and every match needs focus and 100% commitment. It is shaping up well and lets hope Barca will win everything and see Madrid clapping Barca onto the Bernabeu which is my goal for Barca this season!
Im not too worried about Bojan, like Titti said it is not easy for him right now. He is being played alongside the best attacking players in the world and you have to remember he is still basically a kid. He was not great last night, but neither was Iniesta in the first half. However he worked hard and tried his best to have an impact, cannot really ask for much more than that from such a young player. Same goes for Pedro.
I, like Titti, was a little worried with our lineup last night but once again Pep has proved that he knows what he is doing. He knew that by dominating the midfield we would win the game and he was right. We completely outplayed them and outmuscled them in the middle of the park and thats all we needed to win the game. The fact that Messi is by miles the best player on the planet certainly helped as well
Alves btw was worth every damn penny we spent on him!! I had my doubts right at the start but the speed at which he has adapted to our style of play and the way he balances attacking with defending is quite astonishing really. He seems to have the ability to be in two places at once.
Yaya is a BEAST.
Cacer-yol???
Layi,
I am really cracking up...what an imagination. This is exactely how it should be. 2 people can have different opinions without insulting each other but man you are very creative and it is actually pretty funny (in a good way!)
Messi - Alves combination on the right side is very impressive . Just think of the impact of signing a quality LB to hook up with Iniesta on the left flank. Barça would be then very hard to stop !!
I was so delightful last night and about to drop aline here but was so occupied .
I was worried about Iniesta who has just recoverd . Did u see Manich interferin against him .
Anyways, feel so glad to see that we got two teams at CampNou. Pep has shashed Agueri's comments on the game .Concernin Caceres did his job adequately in spite of his missin that corner . I really hope that he's gettin on the right track .
Messi ?????? OMG NO COMMENT ==> just not GOD lol
May ALLAH bless him
lol Maverick977 made me laugh
I just wanna say that has got my own religion . Barça ==> is my blue vain and red blood within :
I think Bosquets gotta replace Xavi in the future but the later is still the king of midfield in the world . I do would like to get Xavi's shirt but won't accept fake ones . Xavi is authentic so he deserves authentic . I'd be grateful to have one .
Conecrnin the left wing where Iniesta plays , we'd be so glad to see Silva beside since the right wing is great with Alves and Messi;
So do responsibles in ou rclub think this way ?????????????????????????
Itri
Messi is a very good player. I think he will win Ballon D´or soon maybe next season. Very talented nad fast player...
bojan is on d right path, no need for worries, he was never a magical player, he just needs to perfect his characteristics of becoming a very dangerous center-forward like villa....messi and alves were with the ball 70% of the time so naturally iniesta and bojan would be more quiet though they did their job of making necessary runs and covering up space.....too much talent in barca
.....and what did arsenal achieve with vela after loaning him out,titi?
the way messi changes to maximum acceleration is unfathomable, nobody can keep up with that, pernia and co were really funny, looked like they were asking the ref what he expected them to do
All 9 of my Xavi shirts are the real deal...thats over $1000 in Xavi shirts in my wardrobe!
I even have the early 90's Hagi shirt& also a mint 1998 Luis Enrique one! - I counted them up last night and I have 15 Barca shirts in my wardrobe lol. My next one will definetely be Busquets next season!
thats a nice collection, fcb_darren
i started late and i have just six now (not counting their beautiful nike training jerseys which i love, i have like 10 of those)