Is it just me, or does anyone else feel that the overall quality of La Liga clubs has noticeably declined over the past three or four years? Javier Tebas has seriously ruined this league. His FFP rules have stifled clubs’ spending and driven talent elsewhere. Premier League clubs were always going to be hard to match financially but Tebas isn’t making things any easier on La Liga.
As someone who has defended Araujo for awhile, it's sad to see him still making boneheaded mistakes in big games. I can get that his 1st yellow for dissent was bullshyte, because he's the captain, and should be allowed to speak to the ref. But to your point, he's gotta be smarter in the situation for the second. It again was a situation where he went in for the tackle, when he didn't NEED TO do so. To my mind, he only played because Barca don't have a LCB to pair with Cubarsi. They've gotta get Senesi from Bournemouth on a free.
I get this sentiment, but alas, Barca have already re-signed him. And for as boneheaded as he can be, I'd rather have him than an aging and injured Christensen going forward. Regardless of who they keep at CB, they've GOTTA get a LCB, so that they don't keep having to select Araujo in matches like this.
In re-watxhing the game, Cucurella received the ball near the end line, and passed it back. While it was true that when the pass to him was struck that he was level with the last defender, it looked like he had come from an offside position, at least from what I saw. In other words, he had never re-establisjed himself onside prior to the pass. Not that it mattered, Chelski were worthy winners, thanks to Araujo and others.
Yeah, I took a look at The Laws, and I guess that a player does not have to "re-establish being onside," PRIOR to receiving the pass. I'm told that a player can "re-establish being onside" SIMULTANEOUSLY to receiving the pass. So, it was a good goal. That said, it was a cavalcade of a comedy of errors: 1. Ferran shytting himself from 10 yards away from goal, missing a golden opportunity to change the game. 2. Ferran and Kounde not communicating on the goal line, leading to the own-goal. 3. Araujo was RIGHT to protest the lack of a call on Cucurella fouling Yamal. But, he was WRONG to get in the face of the ref, so that was a proper 1st yellow card. 4. Araujo was WRONG to dive in to make a tackle on Cucurella, who was not in a dangerous space, well away from the penalty area, and in the half-space. 5. 2nd goal, watch Balde slowly jogging back, rather than sprinting to help Cubarsi, leaving Cubarsi 1 v 1 on Estevao. [Balde seems to have a "higher gear" going forward, and is SLOWER tracking back.] 5a. Cubarsi stupidly dove in to make a tackle, and wrong-footed himself, rather than staying on his feet to stay inside and goal side of Estevao. [He and Araujo have done this a few times this year.] 6. Blown offside trap on the 3rd goal. Two ways to look at this: A. Barca beat themselves, more than Chelski beat them, thus these errors are correctable. B. Barca beat themselves, and WTF are they making dumb mistakes?
Pretty much the best XI today: Joan Kounde Cubarsi Martin Balde Eric Pedri Fermin Yamal Lewandowski Raphinha
Fermín shot blocked. Great opportunity to draw level. Need to keep to the mantra that we'll just outscore them.
This is looking pretty bad - as scores stand, we currently sit 19th, 4 points out of the top 8. This is must-win for all the mathematical and psychological reasons.
Agreed. Also need a deep UCL run, so that Laporta and Deco don't do anything stupid in the transfer market, so as to "paper over" any of their shortcomings.
At some point we may have to start talking about top 24 instead of top 8. But I still think we turn this match around tonight.
The top 8 is all heavyweights; there aren't too many Cinderella teams we might look forward to playing if we make it to the knock-outs as a lower-seeded team.
Oh yeah .. I know. Would have to make it past the extra round and play against a top 8 team after that. Not good. These last 3 matches need to be wins.
Not only that, Barça's GD is only +1, as of this typing. Dortmund, currently 8th in the table are +6 on GD, with a game in hand. On the other end of the table, the 24th (Juve) and 25th (Pafos) ranked teams could surpass Barça if they win, and this result stays as-is.