Looks like Suarez must have done a charity marathon just before the game ... he looks half dead out there
Puyol and Xavi had it all worked out. Whenever there was a free kick on the wings that was in line with the penalty box Xavi would take the free kick and look for Puyol rushing in. Worked beautifully in that 2-6 at the Bernabeu, nearly did so against Man Utd in Rome and worked again (albeit via a corner) against Germany in South Africa, not to mention a few other times. Those two had that play down to a science. Damn, just saying their names nearly brings tears to my eyes.
Soooo Messi was nearly Messi tonight and the positives .. Pique and Alba looked good as did Arthur, Vidal, Lenglet and Samedo to a lesser extent .. Dembele looked lively again
Those two warmed up together for much of the practice I saw at Kezar (the day before they played the Chivas game at the old Candlestick in SF). Sorta weird to see a CB and attacking mid playing long balls back and forth to each other but it's how you develop the understanding I guess.
last time two defenders scored was in 2012 when Pique and Adriano scored against Bilbao , over 7 years ago
Liga is going to be dross for this and the next three matches (maybe the rest of the La Liga five matches), we want to win sure, get closer to clinching La Liga (yet again), but really the focus is to not get injured, conserve energy, get some players fresh who need PT (and/or confidence). I am not expecting champagne football in La Liga from here on out. Sure, it might be nice if we blitzed them for 3 goals early and then sat back, but that is not our style (the sitting back esp. but also the early blitzing, we tend to score more late), it risks more injuries, etc.
Two wins sure (or 1 win for us, 1 Atleti loss), but in football terms 6 points is more accurate, combo of us getting 6 and/or any Atleti drops. Which is why it remains "in the bag" even more after both of us only eked out wins today. We need just 6 out of 15 points, and if Atleti drops any points at all so much the easier (I think that their schedule is a bit tougher). FWIW Real's magic # is just 2 points and they have 6 more matches to play (so if they won 5 and drew 1 without us even getting another point we'd still win Liga versus Real).
not really a good game but good result. it is neccesary to save energy, avoid injuries. 2 wins away from laliga tittle
Camp Nou attendance 96,708 Tue 16 Apr Manchester United (UCL) 21:00 93,265 Sun 28 Oct Real Madrid 16:15 92,795 Sat 30 Mar Espanyol 16:15 92,453 Sat 6 Apr Atlético Madrid 20:45 92,346 Wed 13 Mar Olympique Lyon (UCL) 21:00 92,008 Wed 6 Feb Real Madrid (Copa) 21:00 88,712 Sat 20 Oct Sevilla 20:45 86,290 Wed 24 Oct Internazionale (UCL) 21:00 83,174 Sun 11 Nov Betis 16:15 78,686 Sat 22 Dec Celta 18:30 78,015 Sat 29 Sept Athletic Bilbao 16:15 76,789 Sat 2 Feb Valencia 18:15 76,398 Wed 5 Dec Cultural Leonesa (Copa) 21:30 76,055 Sun 23 Sept Girona 20:45 75,470 Sat 20 Apr Real Sociedad 20:45 74,158 Sat 9 Mar Rayo Vallecano 18:30 73,462 Tue 18 Sept PSV Eindhoven (UCL) 18:55 73,003 Sun 2 Dec Villarreal 18:30 71,057 Sun 2 Sept Huesca 18:30 71,039 Sun 13 Jan Eibar 18:30 70,089 Wed 15 Aug Boca Juniors (Gamper) 18:15 69,961 Tue 11 Dec Tottenham (UCL) 21:00 67,435 Sat 16 Feb Real Valladolid 20:45 58,050 Wed 30 Jan Sevilla (Copa) 21:30 52,356 Sat 18 Aug Alavés 22:15 50,670 Sun 20 Jan Leganés 20:45 42,838 Thur 17 Jan Levante (Copa) 21:30
Pretty quiet game. Looked dangerous a couple times, but no end product whatsoever. Weird game in that Vidal seemed to be involved in many of our scoring chances. Which, pretty much means the end of the scoring chance. What a shot by Alba though! Wrong foot and all. A bit lucky it wasn’t ruled out as Dembele was offside and straight in the path of the shot. I guess the fact that there was quite a lot of space between him and the keeper is why they let the goal stand.
Nice corner kick assist on the Lenglet header, nice interference on the Alba goal too (but too risky, could've been called back as he was offsides). After the corner kick he stretched the defense 3 or 4 times down the left wing, but his cut back passes were all intercepted or just missed connecting. Decent wide shot. No injury. He gives another dimension for sure, but not certain who EV will start vs. Pool. 2 minutes of his "highlights":
Really nice article (or editorial - as it clearly has a point to make, but does so pretty convincingly) about Vidal and his imprint on the Sociedad game. He was in strong consideration for my match winners post but just got beaten out by Alba and MAtS. I still have to wonder if it was good business to sell Paulinho and sign Vidal, given how well Paulinho fit in, his many goals, his acceptance of his role. But I think he wanted to return to China having contributed to Barca's double and getting more solidly back in the Brazilian NT. But we made a bit of money, and got a better player. I have read that team-wide he is basically #2 to Busquets for the team in won tackles, pressures, pressure regains, and aggressive actions, NOT adjusted for minutes played. https://www.barcablaugranes.com/bar...rk-of-art-for-barcelona-against-real-sociedad There is a powerful desire to analogize, "he is our Keita" or "he is our angry Paulinho" or "he gives us what peak Casemiro gave Real" (all "quotes" by me just to make a point), but none quite capture it. I'm still a fan of starting the Raki-Busi-Arthur but Arturo is a gem.
The way I see it, the players who started against La Real won't start against Liverpool. Just my hunch. Among the questionable positions, that is - Semedo, Vidal, Dembele.