Wisla Krakow 1 Barça 0
Tuesday, 26 August 08, 08:30 PM · Comments(38)
Barça qualified for the group stage of the Champions League tonight but the alarm bells will be ringing after a poor performance which saw the first defeat for the team under Pep Guardiola. A goal from Brazilian defender Cleber gave Wisla a 1-0 win on the night though Barça go through 4-1 on aggregate.
There were few problems for either goalkeeper early on, but Wisla had the better chances. On 12 minutes mistakes from Abidal and then Puyol led to a shot from 25 yards from Diaz which went straight at Valdés. Then after 20 minutes Valdés made a mess of a Piqué backpass and ended up clearing straight to the feet of a Wisla forward who chipped the ball back in only for the ball to drift wide of the far post.
Thierry Henry then put in a couple of crosses from the left but first Eto'o headed weakly wide and then Iniesta was beaten to the ball by a defender. Barça's best chance of the half came three minutes before the break when Iniesta made a good run before slipping the ball through to Henry who shot wide from 16 yards when he should have done much better.
There was a lack of intensity to Barça's game which was eventually punished early in the second half when Cleber stole in unmarked at a corner to fire in a header that was too powerful for Valdés to stop. Barça did react to the goal and began to create some chances, Eto'o forcing a diving save after being set up by Iniesta, and later Eto'o again had a shot deflected over after being sent through by Toure.
The closest Barça came to an equalizer was in the 62nd minute when Piqué headed a corner onto the crossbar. And Pique had two more chances in the space of a minute near the end but his finishing was poor. With a couple of minutes remaining Bojan fought well to win the ball in the Polish penalty area but then wasted the chance by shooting over from 6 yards.
We will have to hope that this performance was down to the huge advantage from the first leg, and perhaps it is unrealistic to expect great things from the team in a match such as this. However, despite playing a more physical midfield with Keita and Toure, later reinforced with Gudjohnsen and Hleb, Barça looked far from convincing. Eto'o and Henry who played much of the second half leading a 4-4-2 formation failed to finish when the chances presented themselves, while the defensive mistakes were again quite worrying. I don't know what is so difficult about everyone picking up a man to mark at a corner but Barça continue to be caught out in this area. The early signs under Guardiola had been good but today's game showed all the signs of many of the away performances in the last two seasons under Frank Rijkaard.
Barça: Valdés 5.5; Alves 5.5, Puyol 5.5, Piqué 6, Abidal 5; Xavi 6 (Gudjohnsen m56, 5), Toure 6, Keita 5.5; Iniesta 6 (Hleb m65, 5), Eto'o 5.5 (Bojan m73, 5.5), Henry 5.
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Valdes is a problem and I said so in my la Liga review. Please check out my profile and read the blog!!!! we need a better keeper.We will not win a freaking thing with this guy in the wood...this is ridiculous...we should have won this game. I am outraged!!!@!!
... with in one piece with my sympathy for Barcelona, but: we demonstrated, like the club around five hundred times with smaller budget, and the lack of reinforcements - is able to fight and to be also proud from one's over of hundred years' tradition and history.
Fan the Vistula Cracow.
its hard for me to blame valdes and im sick of ppl hoo keep blaming him....before blaming valdes....we should blame the terrible barca defence....so many mistakes each game....it is true that we havent conceded many goals this preseason but ive watched every game...and so many terrible back passes...so much miscommunication...they look very shaky.....before u blame valdes....blame puyol, marquez, pique, and the rest of the defenders
Diatus what the hell are you talking about? I agree he has sometimes performed below par for the past 2 seasons, but yesterday Valdes was probably man of the match. In NO WAY is Valdes to blame for yesterday's loss. I don't know if you just like bashing him or what but you make absolutly no sense...
It certainly rings the alarm bells in the defence one thing i pointed out was that renewing sylvinho's contract was a big mistake, we shouldve brought in a left back that is good in attack and solid in defence that could actually challenge poor abidals position he is complacent now he doesn't even try cause he knows sylvinho will never be able to compete for his position,ive always held on and thought he'll improve but nah i've run out patience with him
Instead of looking for a arshavin(god forbid) we should be aiming for a evra.i am sure guardiola gave the team a piece of his mind after the game puyol was at fault for the goal he was completely alone i don't know what was wrong with him in this game he made a lot of mistakes .
And valdes he wasn't poor at all he just made that one mistake and he did two or three world class saves his reflex and shot stopping is top class i vouch for him.
Oh and one thing i observed was that putting iniesta on the right wing really is a sin he was poor and his only highlite was that in the box pass to henry he did absolutley nothing i match he wont look back at for sure, i dont know why guardiola didn't start hleb there at that right flank when he came in he did pretty good there.
This match really didn't mean anything really guys just don't believe the press since they always blow things out of proportion just to catch a eye to sell a paper.
Ok that was bad, but you guys need to calm down a bit. First of all, Wisla probably had the best game of their lives, while Barca knew the job was done last week. Yes we could have played better and the players did not give anywhere near their best, but really what do you expect with absolutely nothing to play for? We won this tie already and this game was just a formality, one last friendly. Everybody is getting ready for the start of the league campaign on Sunday and they want to be fresh for the game that matters. Quite frankly i dont blame them for not having the foot on the peddle. All that being said, after we conceded we were unlucky not to equalise if not win. There were more than a few chances that went begging, we hit the post and we had a few BS offside decisions. I think this loss could be a good thing in that it will ground the players a bit and it highlights to Pep some of our weaknesses while he can still do something about it.
If you ask me its all the same. @ All the other Barca Fans , I rather Barca lose 1 to nothing in an away game for the CL qualification round where we won 4-0 home then losing the first game of the season. We had to lose a game some time. The Players are tired, They gave us one hell of a preseason. Give them a brake.
FORCA BARCA!!! 
Anyway a defeat is a defeat, we got through to the group stages anyway!!!! 
38 Comments · Add yours
I've yet to see the match myself but from all the reports this is worrying. Of course, one can't expect perfection and there needed to be a lose at some point. Loses under these circumstances would be preferable, since it's overall effect was negligible. Having said that, it's not part of the club philosophy to 'allow' losses, and I'm pretty certain it's not part of Pep's philosophy either. Things obviously didn't go well for Barça this time around. We'll see how Guardiola and the players respond to this in the weeks to come.
It should also be pointed out one 'ace' was not shown in this match: Messi. Still resting from his Olympic adventures, he will only add to the Blaugrana's game. But, Messi isn't a defender and that's what needs watching.
I was disappointed after this game as well..but this game had no significance at all..It was as good as done, so I m not that sad...anyways, it's better to fall now than to fall later...