Recreativo 0 Barça 2
Sunday, 16 November 08, 10:04 PM · Comments(21)
Second half goals from Leo Messi and Seydou Keita gave Barça a hard-earned victory in Huelva tonight that moves us three points clear of Villarreal at the top of the table and five points clear of Real Madrid and Valencia. Let nobody be fooled: this was not an easy game, Recreativo defended well for most of the game and also threatened with some dangerous counter-attacks, in Sisi, Adrian Colunga and Camuñas they have a lot of talent and Barça had to put in a good performance, especially good in the second half, to come away with the three points.
For the first twenty minutes Barça had a lot of possession without getting close to goal while Recre showed some dangerous counter attacks that had the crowd starting to believe that their team could upset the big boys. Barça then also began to raise the game, creating five chances in the space of seven minutes with Messi and Eto'o both being denied by Recre keeper Riesgo. In the 34th minute Arzo headed a corner towards goal but Valdés saved it on the line. Messi then had a great run before setting up Henry but the Frenchman's shot was weak and easily saved by Riesgo. On the stroke of half time Eto'o curled one from the left but it went well over.
Most of the Barça's attacks in the first half came down the right hand side with both alves and Messi being very active, however, Recre defended well and none of Riesgo's saves were too difficult. The second half began with a couple more dangerous runs into the area from Messi that had Canal Plus commentator Michael Robinson declaring that Leo Messi goes past top quality defenders like the good player in the school playground goes past the rubbish ones.
Then in the 51st minute Barça won a free kick 25 yards out, Xavi shaped to either shoot or send in a cross but he surprised the defence by playing an angled pass into Leo Messi who had broken away from the defensive wall to receive the pass, Messi controlled with one touch before smashing a tremendous shot into the top of the net. The play looked rehearsed from training, and seeing Pep Guardiola's face as he celebrated the goal I think we can be sure that it was.
In the 58th minute Recreativo made a double substitution with Camuñas and Akalé coming on and within four minutes Camuñas crossed and Akalé's shot was deflected over. From the resulting corner Camuñas had a near post header that hit the outside of Victor Valdés's unguarded post. it was the closest recre would come and as they tired after their tremendous effort Barça took control for the remainder of the game.
Thierry Henry had a shot deflected onto the crossbar and Eto'o was unfairly booked for challenging the goalkeeper for the rebound. Eto'o and Henry had another chance apiece before Henry was once more denied by the woodwork with a cracking shot from the left side of the area. It wasn't until the 85th minute that Barça got the second goal allowing us all to relax a little: Henry jinked this way and that on the left wing before sending in a deep cross which was met by Eto'o at the far post with a mishit volley which ran across the face of the goal nicely into the path of substitute Keita, who'd come on when Toure got a cut on his forehead, and he had a simple finish from close in. Deep into injury time Barça hit the woodwork again when Bojan headed Xavi's free kick onto the bar.
This team goes from strength to strength, another complicated away game another victory. We now have nine straight league wins which is no mean feat even though they were not against any of our closest rivals. Pep Guardiola has not won anything yet as our manager but the attention to detail continues to impress, the players were once again totally concentrated for the game and they kept plugging away throughout the 90 minutes. It is impossible not to mention Leo Messi again, I don't believe I have ever seen a player who can beat a defender one-on-one with such ease, of course he can't do it every time but I would be interested to know how many defenders he dribbled past today in the course of the 90 minutes. The guy is an absolute joy to watch right now.
Barça: Valdés 7; Alves 7, Marquez 7.5, Piqué 6, Puyol 7 (Sylvinho m70, 6); Xavi 7.5, Toure 7 (Keita m78, 6.5), Busquets 7; Messi 8.5, Eto'o 6.5 (Bojan m87, 6), Henry 6.
Goals: m51 Messi 0-1, m85 Keita 0-2
Barça yellows: m33 Alves, m71 Eto'o
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Henry would've gotten more than a 6 if he had a bit more luck...hitting the post twice the poor bloke. Been happy with his improved efforts last few weeks though.
Toure looked a bit uncomfortable with the ball at his feet in the first half. He improved in the second half with some nice dribbles but he was more effective at stealing posession and passing it to a teammate than creating a play himself. He made alot of tackles to deny the recreativo posession.
However he gave away posessesion quite a few times in the first half as well, with the most dangerous slip-up happening when he gifted the ball to the recreativo player with only puyol, valdes and acres of space behind him. Thanks to clever postioning from puyol, the attacker's only option was to cross the ball into the box and Valdes was there to cover it. (Some nice saves from Valdes too)
Then that counter attack lead to a counter-counter attack with valdes chucking the ball to Messi, who just races towards the goal slipping in between two defenders and outrunning a defender pulling his jersey, skipping past a few more and finding Henry in open space who sadly wasted it with a weak effort straight to the goalie.
When I saw that run from Messi, my jaw just dropped. He could have taken a dive but he shrugged the defender off and kept on moving. He deserves to be win the ballon d'or and players with that much talent dont need to rely on diving.
He had a marvelous game today. The only player who really threatened the recre back four in the first half. They couldnt find eto'o that much, plus he was off today (missing three great chaces set up by Xavi). Henry would get the ball but he would just pass it back or sometimes he would just let the ball go and stick out a thumb. Its really delightful to watch how Messi treats a group of defenders swarming him like dribbling practice with cones.
Henry needs to pull the trigger more often.
panalo ang barca...putang ina yang real madrid na yan...
can anybody understand this??? i don't know if it is saying bad to us barca fans...just saw it in another blog...
last year..madrid fan we calculating point gap..so iritating..
now its our...lets count all together..
3 POINTS CLEAR!!!!!! 
@jepoy, panalo ang barca...putang ina yang real madrid na yan... in Tagalog means Barca won, Madrid sons of bitches. My wife is a filipina she told me the meaning.
thnx..i appreciate it
21 Comments · Add yours
Simply brilliant!! clear top before Chirstmas....wooo!
Nic - How do you think Xavi will be rating so far as the Spanish league player of the year?? I think he has been simply a class above EVERYONE after comming back from Euro in top form
sadly i couldnt watch the first 30mins, but i sure liked what i saw in the last hour. the spirit was right and its to see we can still do without iniesta. messi is the number 1 stunner. no doubt. i just its a matter of time before his legs gets "ripped apart" from one of those (many) defenders, that just cant keep up with him.
by the way, i think henry was better than a 6 tonight. he showed good spirit and got his chances. but of course he still needs to score.