Shakhtar Donetsk 1 Barça 2

alright ive calmed down quite a bit. im sad i dont feel happy about this win. the poorness of the first 83 minutes outweigh the glory of just 7 in my mind. the last goal was amazing though, pure class from xavi and then MESSIdona.

hilal: i did get over critical before, heat of the moment, happens to us all. i see ur also getting a bit sick of henry. ill leave it at that.

otherwise, titi got it spot on with this game. not going to say much more on it, but ill say i was really fuming mad watching it. i often had to flick the channel to get rid of the frustration. some of that was due to the digusting time wasting and pretend injury tactics being used by donesk. really if i was a barca player i would have probably gotten sent off, i would have tackled one of them (especially that braulio) so hard to merit the physio coming on.

titi was especially corrent abotu keita. where was he? he is far from impresive at all this season and frankly the biggest thing i got from this game, and i hope pep saw too was how incredibly much better yaya is. not only is he defensively a god compared to keita, his attacking player is superior. he is much more comfortable on the ball, better touch, better dribbler. keita frakly did nothing in this game.

again, plz someone tell me alves is going to improve. plz. im so disappointed with him.

i thought iniesta was good though, and thank god for messi. frankly i totally disgree with him being rested. i know he has had a busy summer and that, but he should just get some days rest from training. you dont see CR, kaka, lampard, gerard (those types) being RESTED. especially after like 7 games in the season. give me a break.

maybe its true that grinding out wins is something positive to get from this. but people, be honest with yourself, the win was shocking lucky and the performance was not encouraging. but ill admit this isnt an easy game coming to the ukraine. they played their hearts out. super dirty too.

actually big props to valdes too. he too often is slanderd here and never credited. his first half save was excellent and had another good one in teh second form the corner.

howard web irritated me too. first half they fouled us abotu 123 times, then they have one attack, PIQUE trips braulio (that rubbish) and xavi gets carded for like our 2nd foul. shocking. refs need to yelllow card such teams way earlier otherwise they will keep being so dirty. thats the one just result from this win. the physical tactics and shocking play acting injuries merrited them being gutted like that last minute.

That was a clearance pure and simple. No justification for Shaktar complaints. Their manager should be ashamed for his post-game ranting.

Barca were saved by Shaktar gift and a moment of brilliance. The team plan is still not working. We now know whether they sit back and defend or press all over Barca will have troubling breaking down a disciplined side. Barca needs more width, more direct play on the counter and more players willing to shoot the ball (except not you so much Andres Initesta).

and we got atletico coming up with this shaky defence against aguero

Eto'o was no better than Henry in this game so 5.5 does not stand, maybe for Eto'o. And thank God that was not Henry 1 on 1 with keeper, because if it was I can only imagine comments about him.

And BTW to me Alaves was horrible tonight, so 4.5 for him.

OH MY GOD!!!

What a win...I was abt to turn my tv off out of pure disappointment, but thank god I didn't do that...Against Espanyol, some part of me said we def. would score, but today, I never thot we'd score....Thank you my hero, Messi, for proving me wrong...Messi, ur the best...

So I get home from school, just about to check goal.com for all the CL results... but stop and realize ESPN Classic is playing a delayed taping of this match. So I tune in at about m74.... I was SHOCKED to see Shakhtar on top. I can easily see why people are upset about Barca's play today, even right up to m86 first I can see how lazy and unorganized Barca was playing. Little did I know It was the perfect time to tune in!

That 2nd goal was a beauty... classic Xavi and Messi's finish was superb. I almost feel privileged to witness that in extra time.

As for the first goal... you snooze you lose Shakhtar! Maybe you should invest in some new mitts for your keeper!

3 pts is 3 pts! Viva Barca!

While like most others today, I'm dissapointed in the performance, I'm glad we eeked a win out in what is a challenging trip. I do share some of your concerns over how we will go against some of the big games in la liga if we display this football again - but lets just enjoy the result and move on - Barca fans are great but are often to quick I think to really turn on our boys (not saying its anyone here,just an observation).

I don't like the 3-5-2 - and I concur, we need proper 'out and out' wingers..not makeshifts like Iniesta - who does a tremendous job btw acting as one.

Lets look ahead guys...we got the points and are on the way back to Spain..can't honestly ask more for that this early in the campaign.

Messi and Bojan work much better in smaller spaces than Eto'o and Henry, they are slippery little mice, I want to see Bojan start more. I would love to see Bojan, Messi and Eto'o team up against Atleti

anybody get the feeling pep was going for a defensive precaution? I mean two defensive midfielders. I thought Barcelona was a purely attack minded team, they cant depend on a defencive strategy to save their life. No wonder this was a problem today and no wonder barca was on the back foot most of the time and went down one goal.

Then again that was a good thing that we went a goal down and had to fight back to win the game. That sort of win builds character and twice in a week is a huge boost for fan, player and manager alike.

WOW Messi is the classic example of a difference maker. Comes on as a sub, scores one to tie the game and then latches on to a crystal quality throughball from xavi and finishes it off with a priceless chip to clinch the three points. He is just too damn good!

Also I am loving how the team fights for a win from being a goal down because completely giving up was the bane of barcelona's miserable season last year.

haha I loved the sinister smile on messi's face as he ran back to the centre half with the ball in his hand. He was definitely thinking "muahahahahaha you damn fools, its over now. Watch how I will leave all of you crying now"

Wow. Did we even deserve ONE point from this game? Nothing seemed to work and its worrying to see how bad we are doing without Leo. But I do hope this game will inject some confidence in the players before the big weekend game.

Oh, and by the way.. 2-1? Late winner? Didn't I tell you culés?
I hope you're counting, Nic....

Hey guys,

I missed the game last night, from what I hear though we played shit defensively. I think the suggestion in the previous post makes sense, messi behind the 2 strikers. we need to use our strenghts,

Also we got to agree about one thing, we have had 3 late wins, betis, espanyol and last night's game. That shows we suddenly have found our motivation to win back again thats the positive

If anyone knows a link where i can see the highlights it'll be much appreciated

Cheers

Bojan , Yaya and Pedro should see more playing time. With the upcoming signing period in January, I think we should cut our losses and trade both Abidal and Henry if there are any takers, that is !! I realize that there are a few Henry fans but the club's interest should NOT be risked for the sake of ANY player. Henry was the first and sometimes the only option while he was at Arsenal. He took all penalties and free kicks although he was never good at converting them. However, he is at Barca perhaps fourth or fifth option at best. He just can NOT fit in the Barca system. Enough excuses about playing out of position. He was playing in HIS favourite position and failed to deliver. This club is still good but there are major weaknesses. Barca has no competent goalkeeper, a left back or a ligitimate left wing. I hope we see some changes come January. As far as some fans who go out of their way to make excuses for certain players, please make up your minds and support your team instead of defending players who can be more of a liability than help !!

we should try angel di maria or silva or afellay to solve the left wing issue

shahenshah,
I agree with you about the the players you mentioned. I was impressed with Silva in Euro 2008 and di Maria in the Olympics. Since I live in Holland, I can tell you that Ibrahim Affellay is by far the best player in Holland. Unfortunately, he will probably be lured away by some big spending EPL club or Madrid who has in its lineup about half of the Dutch national team. Of course, we know how slow and indecisive Barca can be when trying to sign quality players. They seem to be snatched up by other clubs over and over !!

MESSI!!!! He was great!!! The equalizing goal was perfectly legal!!!!

When can i see goals of Messi ?

Here's a link to the highlights - LINK

Thanks for the link, nic !
The commentary is in Arabic .The play by play team reserved special praise for Xavi and Iniesta and of course, Messi. They also thought that both Guardiola and the defence sucked !!

however you look at it, a win is a win and we should be happy with the 3 points.

I know many of you would like to see beautiful flowing football, but sometimes the circumstances don't allow for it, just like last night. Physical teams aren't gonna give us space to work with and are always gonna play dirty to get thing going their way, at least last night it didn't wok. Boy that Brandao is a dirty player.

we can be glad that the team didn't give up. at least they played until the end even if the played shitty. But yes we were luck but the first goal was legitimate and the second was class. all i can say is well done Barca. this results should make the team build character and confidence and show them that some team won't sit back and wait for the counter.

Big up to Valdes for his important saves, this will surely build up his confidence to make even more saves later on.

I also think that Eto'o took one too many step with the ball when he went 1 on 1 with the goalkeeper.

i'm not sayin much, all has been said...but if pep is reall a good coach and the one to take us places, i expecting him to be taking some serious notes which we will soon start seeing the effects, he is just facing what rijkaard faced 1st time...

its obvious there is no space for henry in this his 4-3-3 unlesa eto is rested, so he should stop forcing the issue, the TEAM 1st

@ blaugranaboy, thank you for making some good comments we need more.

Im fed of people just putting the ****ing blame at certain players all the time. We cannot let it get like Ronaldinho last season where even though he wasnt the worst player at the club, he got the blame for everything bad as he encapsulated everything going wrong at the club. We did well to win but still against quality like Athletico we will not get away with it a third time.

AGAIN we ARE SCORING. Henry played crap, Eto should not escape criticism as his chance was as golden as anything so how "ae_fcbnews" could say Henry could of done worse is just silly. Eto had the chance, he completely blew it. Eto can be brilliant and is most of the time, just sometimes he has the capactity to self-destruct in a match. However, my problem and opinion with Barca is still 100%, no other way to look it, the appauling, shocking, poor defending.

Free kicks we let in, corners we cant mark, we cannot deal with a long ball from a centre back ffs!! I wrote last year that we could sign Kaka, Ronaldo, and clone Messi 3 times and still lose the league as we cant defend. We still cant. Alves has been poor defensively really so far and Abidal's positioning is shocking. He just doesnt have that defensive inituition and please dont embaress Puyol again by playing him at LB its not fair on him.

We can ship off Henry in January, build a time-mahcine and steal Maradona to play with Messi up front, but we will still not win the league unless we build a defence. Anyone disagree? If you do with that then your need to watch another sport.

Titti nobody is going to argue that our defense is not crap. Defensively we are all over the place and we still need a lot of work. However these things take time and defensively i do not think we will see a marked improvement till January. For one thing it is clear that Pep is still trying to work out the best way to organise the back four (or 3). Puyol i think is losing it a bit and as much a it pains me to say this we might have to start using him a lot more sparingly

At the end of the day though, Barcelona have never been a very well organised team defensively. We won the double with a pretty average defense and to be honest you can stick whoever you want in the back four and we will still never look as solid or feel as secure as we would like because of the way we play. I agree we need to be more organised on free kicks and corners and we need more confidence in defense. The problem is that the whole team moves dynamically, which is fantastic for attacking but bad for defending. The mentality is to score, score and score more. It is great but at the same time it leaves us vulnerable. How much did Puyol bomb forward against Shaktar, and thats with 3 at the back!!! I think we will get there because we have good defenders, it is just going to take a bit of time to strike a balance between defending and attacking. From what i have seen so far this season I have full confidence that Pep will make a success of this team, it might take longer than some would like but it will happen.

As for Athletico, if they come to play it will be a very interesting game. This might be the first time this season we see a team willing to play us properly instead of just parking the bus.

I am curious if Barca coaching staff dedicates anytime at all for "shooting" the ball from 20-25 meters ?! Yaya is perhaps the player with the best outside shot. I wish he would try to shoot more often ,if he gets a chance to play ! Remember the reason Barca lost in the CL semifinal against Manchester United was a lucky shot from an average player ! Do we actually have to pass and dribble the ball over the goal line ? An outside threat can deter some teams from clogging the penalty area . EPL clubs do it against Barca all the time. They rely mainly on counter attacks and mistakes by our defence. Many teams see no shame in defending with eight or nine players. Another area of weakness is scoring and defending in corners situations. . I am impressed with the new found fighting spirit and never die attitude. Good to see !!

hey nic

do u think rafa marquez will be sold in january next to henryand abidal

Me thinks we are being a bit too harsh on puyol. The fellow hasnt started in every game. Furthermore he doesnt even have a stable partner in the heart of defence. In the first quarter (atleast) of last season Puyol and Milito played each game, linked a partnership with each other and pretty much dominated defensively. Abidal was great too but thats another story.

Putting puyol on the left wing will not work. In the first third of the game he just drifted into the middle everytime, snuffed out the attacks and just jogged back to the wing. I was like "whaaa?".

Honestly if we just stick with pique and puyol for the core of the defence till milito comes back, the defence will be a tough boulder to move if not the wall of china.

Bobby - I doubt Barça will sell anyone in January and definitely not Marquez.

nic:
How do you make Barca with the little comma under the "C"? Thanks.

@ Hilal

I agree around europe Barca have hardly been known for their defensive mentality but I think its about time that changed imo. Unlike Real Madrid we dont seem to get a lot of lucky breaks but there is just NO excuse for the defending for the goal against Donetsk and most of the other goals we have conceded. However I do accept it will take time. Pique is a new addition but everyone knows that a centre-back pairing takes ages to get used to each other so Pep changing them all the time surely is counter-productive? Anyhow I really hope Barca improve or they will never reach their full potential. Lets all support them I suppose and hopefully Pep will guide them to the double!!

Titti.....you are right Pep should be sticking to a centre pairing and allow them to get used to each other. We have to remember though, Pep is still figuring out our best formation/selection defensively. I think he will settle on a pairing soon, or at least I hope so!! Although to be honest i do not think we will ever be that great defensively, it goes against the way we play. I for one wouldnt want to sacrifice the way we play on order to improve the defense. Its one of the reasons I love Barca so much.....their affinity to play football in its most beautiful form. Sure it cannot always work, but we always try and I love it. Would you want to sacrifice our offensive nature to see a more defensive team? I wouldnt. We can win titles this way and we have proved it. We need to cut out the silly goals, which are the goals we have been conceding of late. That is down to building an understanding, chemistry and confidence among the back four. Like i said in my previous post, i dont expect to see much improvemen in the defense till at least January.

As for winning the double, i do not think that the CL is within reach this season because we are too vulnerable and the English teams will punish us. I do think we can win the league though, it depends on how we fair against the strong teams like Athletico. I think our performance tomorrow will be a good indicator.

Mark my words though, whatever happens this season, next season Barca will be a force to be reckoned with!!

With the exception of the unsettled left wing situation, I think Barca is solid in the midfield and offence. However, the defence is an entirely different matter. In my opinion, our defence and goalkeeper are too weak to stop good teams. It is obvious that Abidal is not working out and needs to be replaced but Pujol is not the answer. I agree with Hilal that he is struggling. I doubt if he would be around too long. I don't trust Marquez as a central defender. He can be prone to committing bone-head blunders when beaten,ie; free kicks and penalties. Milito seems to have some injury issues. If he is healthy enough, perhaps he and Piquet can form a solid unit in the center of the defence. Alves is an offensive minded defender. That is fine as long as someone is there to cover for him. I wish he would work on his crosses. But I like his style nevertheless. Our front three should be Messi, Etoó and Iniesta (Pedro as sub). Midfielders: Xavi, Yaya,Hleb(if healthy). Goalkeeper; anyone but Valdes. Leftback: anyone but Abidal !!

Wow! Barca looks like Turkey national team on Euro 2008. Scoring goals on the last seconds of a match. That is nice, but we all know where Turkey ended up playing like that.

If Pep did play a 3-5-2, then it was a very odd choice since it appeared to me that Shaktar were playing a 4-2-3-1 (variation of 4-5-1). This is an ideal formation to combat 3-5-2. Toss in the lopsided nature of FCB's lines and add the intense pressing of Shaktar, and you have a legitimate recipe for Barcelona's defeat. It might've been better to employ a modern variant of 4-3-3, 4-3-2-1 (the xmas tree). That the Catalan club beat the Ukrainians is a tribute to individual effort and some graft. On the other hand, Pep must be credited for the late subs of Messi and Bojan, since it would've been a waste of their individual talents to employ them when Shaktar would've been freshly into their pressing game. Far better to hold the two forwards until the Ukrainians were winded from their efforts, allowing Messi and Bojan more space.

Good blog