FC Barcelona extend their lead at top to six points with a 4-0 thrashing of Valencia. Earlier on the night Villareal made an unbelievable comeback to grab a draw against Getafe after going three goals down. That draw means FC Barcelona would have a comfortable lead of six points when they will visit Bernabeu next week. Thierry Henry scored a hat-trick and Dani Alves scored one to complete the destruction of Valencia. Barca played so well that Valdes hardly made a decent save throughout the match. Guardiola decided to field Abidal as left back and he had one of his best games of the season. He was improving when he got injured; that made me worried he would let go off all the good work he did; but he looks like improving very well. Puyol moved to centre along with Marquez and Alves as usual was stationed at the right. The defense was same as I wrote in preview with Gudjonsen and Xavi joining Toure. The forward line up was made up of Hleb, Henry and Messi. My first impression was that Henry was slotted to play the centre role; but he occupied pre domiantly the left position with Hleb and Messi constantly inter-changing their position.FC Barcelona dominated the game from the very first whistle. In the 2nd minute the make shift Valecia Centre-Defense gave away the ball to Xavi who found himself in a one on one situation with the keeper Renan; but his well placed shot was denied by the post. In the 3rd minute Henry saw his shot from outside the box comfortably saved by Renan.In the 19th minute Alves shot was saved by the goal keeper after a great 1-2 with Messi. But in the next minute Barca went deservingly ahead with a great finish from Henry. Toure found Henry with a great long pass who chipped the ball over an advancing Renan. That was a vintage Henry goal which we were so used to see while he was in Arsenal. In the 21st minute Joaquin wasted a great chance to equalise when he sent ball high but it seemed like it was Marquez desperate defending which made that mistake. In the 28th minute Barca extended their lead from Henry's second goal of the night. Hleb placed the ball in Henry's path after receiving Alves pass and Henry made no mistake with the finish. In the 34th minute Messi starts his trademark run skipping past defenders and earn a free kick outside the box; But Messi's free kick hit the wall, that could be one attribute he could look to improve along with his aerial ability. In the 37th minute Messi was denied by Renan after a great run.
Barca extended their lead early in the first half from a controversial goal from Alves. Alves received the ball from xavi on the left and finished it well past Renan into far corner; but Hleb who put the ball back to Xavi looked to have backtracked from an offside position. In the 53rd minute Alves free kick went brushing the bar. In the 63rd minute Hleb was denied by Renan after a defensive mix-up gave the ball to Hleb. In the 72nd minute Bojan came in place of Hleb. In the 79th minute Henry compleetd his hat-trick courtesy of the hardwork done by Bojan. Alves sent in Bojan on the right; Bojan skipped past two of centre-back before pulling the ball back to Henry for a simple finish. In the 81st minute Messi was replaced by Pedro and in the 84th minute Xavi was taken off to be replaced by Keita. In the 92nd minute Keita saw his header going high from an Alves cross.
The performance against Valencia can be simply described as Majestic. But as Puyol said "We haven't won anything till now". So everyone have to keep their foot firmly placed on the ground. Guardiola would have his best team to chose from against Madrid barring Iniesta and Milito. We have a mid-week match against Shaktar; with already securing the first place in the group, this could see a bunch of members getting rested.
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