PBP: Jornada 34 | La Liga BBVA 13/14 | FC Barcelona v Athletic Bilbao| 20 April 2014 [R]

Mastermind Tata brings in Cesc and turns a disaster to glory

 

So instead of a 6-1 drubbing Masch needs to make a 92nd minute intervention for the 3 points

 

sooo many chances , could've ended with 6-7 goals for us , hopefully pedro and alexis keep playing in the rest of the games to gain their confidence and have a better chance conversion.

 

Both Mascherano and Tello said to Messi.. Pichichi? Do it yourself. Any other year they pass and bend over for Messi.

 

Tello tried to pass it Messi. After the Bilbao defender got the ball there was nothing he could do so he took that weak shot

The thing is it was a corner. The GK touched the ball

 

Funny so many clear chances missed but they score from scrappy situations. Also keeper gifted that to Messi... as well as Alves raid was just pure luck no?

 

Roadmap to win la liga
1. Win the remaining games
2. Real Madrid drops points at least once in the next 5 games
3. Atletico drops points before playing us on the final day.

Possible? Anything is possible.

 

Lucky 3 points!

My 2 cents: not having Pique, Puyol (in his prime), and Valdes in the back affects the whole team. The strength of this team always started in the back, which allowed the whole team to confidently move forward. Instead the team cautiously advances and plays a different strategy.

The ball doesn't reach Messi as much and he does not have that relaxed interplay with Alves, Xavi, and Iniesta passing the ball back and forth. Instead he treads back to help with the build up, which is why he had so many through passes to other teammates today. This is not Messi at his best, since he gets frustrated (same thing happened in Argentina). It's quite a mess and it doesn't seem like Tata has much control over the team out there.

 

I think Valencia is the only team who is capable of taking points from both , they will play LPB away and Atlitico at home , but in the end ( and if that actually happen ) Tata will end up playing with both cesc and neymar in front and we end up with a draw or even a loss against Atlitico on the final day of laliga ( Tata is just hopeless sorry .. )

 

Messi has 39 goals in 39 starts, what a terrible season he is having. At least we created chances in this game, even if we missed most of them.

 

Mascherano man of the match. Could've had 6 goals or more in this one. Look how much pace the team has with both Pedro and Alexis out there. I don't know why the fans were whistling Pinto after the goal, this whole slump is on the forwards. One goal in two games against Atletico, one against Real Madrid, none against Granada. We haven't played horribly in the last two league matches, but we just haven't converted. That being said, the team is a mess.

Alves deserves some props for his play in the buildup to the first goal. Three points is three points.

 

created chances because a certain Neymar is fortunately not playing

 

12 assists this year alone. 4 hattricks.

 

I wasn't able to catch this game, so I had to google update it from time to time..

When I finally saw the 0-1 score I was like this:



Then I returned to check the score again and I was like this:

 

Struggling to score for sometime so its time to pulled Diego's trick again.

1:51

 

This was a fortuitous win for sure. I thought FCB deserved to lead until Athletic scored the first goal. They were on top of the match for a large stretch after that, and could have put the match to bed on a couple of occasions. It could have easily been 3 or 4-2 to Barca at half though. Athletic played some nice football as usual. They pressed very well. Aymeric Laporte saved two goals in the first half. He's worth his buy out clause. Iraizoz played really well. I think Barca players were still having visions of Courtois.

I don't know why Alexis Sanchez was benched in the most important matches down the stretch (and for Cesc). He has been an attacking spark for much of the season. If the club is considering selling Alexis, it better get at least 40m euros.

Tello has regressed significantly due to his lack of match time. There are clubs in the EPL who will make a run at him this summer (Liverpool was most interested last year). Barca stands to get 8-10 m euros for him. I'd gladly apply those funds towards the CB kitty.

 

Kind of what I expected: another unconvincing performance but just enough to win. Athletic definitely deserved better though. I didn't see what was wrong with the goal they scored which would have made it 0-2. Very unlucky with that bicycle kick and Messi's FK goal too (the foul was a good 5 yards further back from where the FK was taken).

I'll feel a bit bad for Athletic if they miss the Champions League because of this. If they lose their next match they'll drop to 5th since the winner of the Bilbao-Sevilla match will also win the head-to-head tiebreaker.

 

Never underestimate a team involved in a relegation fight. I think Valladolid can take points off LPB. Not probable but definitely a realistic 30-35% chance I'd say.

 

Disagree.
Big match with Sevilla is at home. A draw keeps them three points clear.
Away to Rayo...
Home for the Derbi...
Away to Almeria to finish the season.
If Athletic puke up fourth spot it'll be on them just as Barca tossed away a shot at the title..

 

Agreed, no team will miss out on a European spot in the league because of the decision of one play in one match. They have another 37 matches to garner points.

 

Depends how they lose it. If they play like shit in those 4 games then, yeah, they dropped for the same reason as Barca. But based on the evidence I've seen so far, they are losing their grip on 4th mostly because of how well Sevilla are playing and also due to some bad luck yesterday.