Athletic Bilbao 1 FC Barcelona 0
08:45
Athletic Bilbao 1 -FC Barcelona 0 . FT. Yes, Athletic Bilbao are unbeaten at SAN MAMES. The defending champions couldn't score a goal at their stadium. The home team was more decisive and we had possession for possession sake
Xavi was giving diagonal passes to Alexis , new tactic, being direct. But, no use. Athletic Bilbao were pressing Barca high up the pitch just like ajax did.We were waiting for their fuel to burn up,but it didn't.
There are three to four ways to beat Barca.
1) Park the Bus( chelsea ). - This involves lots of organisation, risk,Very good goal keeper and bit of luck
2) Real madrid had found one way- Utilise the void left by the attacking Full backs. Last year off course it was used effectively by Real madrid in Copa del rey second leg. Since both Dani alves and Jordi alba are attack minded. Works very well even now on the paper and on field as well.However, We have new coach, who is bit pragmatic and even uses double pivot at times. So he ain't a fool to leave such place
3) AC MILAN's way- Recall AC Milan 2 Barcelona 0 . This was the game where i felt that , we were well beaten. We had least number of shorts on the target.Milan crowded the midfield and were nullifying all the passes made by xavi,iniesta,Busquets. They didn't allow xavi,iniesta busquets to have space and time. And Messi was well covered. Messi did drop many times but if was of no use as he was the only decisive goalscorer of our team and we were nullified totally in the midfield.
Two years ago, The only way to beat Barcelona(Who played perfect football) was to play perfect anti-football .I am not trying to insinuate here about which is perfect and not perfect.Both are effective ways of winning trophies,but attacking football has an extra flavour,an essence,a beauty which led many experts and lot of people to call it as perfect football and defending with all players as anti-football.let's keep this aside for another day.
Ajax beat Barcelona in their own game.yes, Ajax players were pressing high up the pitch. The saints Xavi,iniesta didn't mark Ajax players well. Ajax created their own triangles to keep the ball in possession and we instead of cutting down their passes,we had our own triangles formed.
This is not a way to defend at all and that was a fantastic display by Ajax and they deserved to win.yes we are mediocre at defending since we don't hunt for the ball anymore.Guardiola had said ,"we try to keep the ball as much as possible because without that we are not comfortable"
After the Ajax loss came the Athletic Bilbao match.Yes , it was a tough game, they play attacking football and are always a tough opponent for us over the years . But 1-0 is not acceptable by any means .On top of that We were clueless in the today's game.They were hunting for the ball and were effective in recovering the ball. Barcelona had just loads of possession with occasional diagonal balls by xavi to sanchez or Neymar.Sadly, it was of no use. Only Busquets was playing well in the first half.Neymar was sprinting on the left ,but often saw himself on the ground, dived once and had a good chance to score .Iniesta too had a chance to score,but his first touch betrayed him, Where as Bilbao were brilliant in recovering the ball and creating goood no. of chances.Pinto saved couple of times and at HT it was 0-0.
Xavi was poor and he shouldn't have started the game. Although i expected Barca to do well in the second half, it always looked like this was not our day. Athletic bilbao were brilliant in the midfield and didn't give barca even a little space and time.
Neymar had a good chance again to score in the starting few minutes of the second half ,but his shot was no where near the post.Very BAD .Eventually, they scored through iker muniain goal. He was a standalone performer for athletic Bilbao. It was sad to see opponents pressurizing us and going straight away to the goal. Neymar is good, but we can't rely on his genius like how we did with Messi. In the last seasons, Messi's individual brilliance has brought us so many points and we don't look so good without him.
Many players are injured in the current Barca lineup.However, that shouldn't be the reason to lose. With the way things are going,it looks like we are going to struggle against villarreal too. Tata Martino has been doing good things with Barca till now. You may ask, it was the first league loss of the season and you are whining about it??
Ans: Yes, i do know that, we win some , we lose some and draw some. But i was expecting a very good fight and the team performance was very very poor .Our Madrid sides must be delighted with this result . This time, it's a three horse race. It's important to win week in week out. Every match is like a final and i hope we correct our mistakes and do well in remaining games and beat celtic ,which is at home to top the CL group.
VISCA BARCA
Xavi was giving diagonal passes to Alexis , new tactic, being direct. But, no use. Athletic Bilbao were pressing Barca high up the pitch just like ajax did.We were waiting for their fuel to burn up,but it didn't.
There are three to four ways to beat Barca.
1) Park the Bus( chelsea ). - This involves lots of organisation, risk,Very good goal keeper and bit of luck
2) Real madrid had found one way- Utilise the void left by the attacking Full backs. Last year off course it was used effectively by Real madrid in Copa del rey second leg. Since both Dani alves and Jordi alba are attack minded. Works very well even now on the paper and on field as well.However, We have new coach, who is bit pragmatic and even uses double pivot at times. So he ain't a fool to leave such place
3) AC MILAN's way- Recall AC Milan 2 Barcelona 0 . This was the game where i felt that , we were well beaten. We had least number of shorts on the target.Milan crowded the midfield and were nullifying all the passes made by xavi,iniesta,Busquets. They didn't allow xavi,iniesta busquets to have space and time. And Messi was well covered. Messi did drop many times but if was of no use as he was the only decisive goalscorer of our team and we were nullified totally in the midfield.
Two years ago, The only way to beat Barcelona(Who played perfect football) was to play perfect anti-football .I am not trying to insinuate here about which is perfect and not perfect.Both are effective ways of winning trophies,but attacking football has an extra flavour,an essence,a beauty which led many experts and lot of people to call it as perfect football and defending with all players as anti-football.let's keep this aside for another day.
Ajax beat Barcelona in their own game.yes, Ajax players were pressing high up the pitch. The saints Xavi,iniesta didn't mark Ajax players well. Ajax created their own triangles to keep the ball in possession and we instead of cutting down their passes,we had our own triangles formed.
This is not a way to defend at all and that was a fantastic display by Ajax and they deserved to win.yes we are mediocre at defending since we don't hunt for the ball anymore.Guardiola had said ,"we try to keep the ball as much as possible because without that we are not comfortable"
After the Ajax loss came the Athletic Bilbao match.Yes , it was a tough game, they play attacking football and are always a tough opponent for us over the years . But 1-0 is not acceptable by any means .On top of that We were clueless in the today's game.They were hunting for the ball and were effective in recovering the ball. Barcelona had just loads of possession with occasional diagonal balls by xavi to sanchez or Neymar.Sadly, it was of no use. Only Busquets was playing well in the first half.Neymar was sprinting on the left ,but often saw himself on the ground, dived once and had a good chance to score .Iniesta too had a chance to score,but his first touch betrayed him, Where as Bilbao were brilliant in recovering the ball and creating goood no. of chances.Pinto saved couple of times and at HT it was 0-0.
Xavi was poor and he shouldn't have started the game. Although i expected Barca to do well in the second half, it always looked like this was not our day. Athletic bilbao were brilliant in the midfield and didn't give barca even a little space and time.
Neymar had a good chance again to score in the starting few minutes of the second half ,but his shot was no where near the post.Very BAD .Eventually, they scored through iker muniain goal. He was a standalone performer for athletic Bilbao. It was sad to see opponents pressurizing us and going straight away to the goal. Neymar is good, but we can't rely on his genius like how we did with Messi. In the last seasons, Messi's individual brilliance has brought us so many points and we don't look so good without him.
Many players are injured in the current Barca lineup.However, that shouldn't be the reason to lose. With the way things are going,it looks like we are going to struggle against villarreal too. Tata Martino has been doing good things with Barca till now. You may ask, it was the first league loss of the season and you are whining about it??
Ans: Yes, i do know that, we win some , we lose some and draw some. But i was expecting a very good fight and the team performance was very very poor .Our Madrid sides must be delighted with this result . This time, it's a three horse race. It's important to win week in week out. Every match is like a final and i hope we correct our mistakes and do well in remaining games and beat celtic ,which is at home to top the CL group.
VISCA BARCA
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