Barça Football Club will not be having a title celebration tonight. When the match started there was as chance - if we win and Madrid dropped points late on. But it will never be happening as we were held on to a last minute equaliser against Bilbao. Once agains it was the lack of aerial defense at the center back position which put us in this mess. Bilbao went ahead in the first half and we struggled to find any decent response till Messi came in. Once he came in we were in for a sweet victory but that was not to be. A look up at the line-up gave you the indication that Barça football club is not going to go down quietly against Bayern at Camp Nou, they were prepared to make a fuss about it. Majority of the expected starters were on the bench. The starting eleven had Valdes, Alves, Pique, Abidal, Alba, Song, Xavi, Thiago, Pedro, Cesc and Sanchez. Pinto, Bartra, Adriano, Iniesta, Messi, Villa and Tello started on the bench.
As usual with our visit to Athletic we were immediately exposed to the huge pressure from the home side. In the 6th minute Muniain went past Pique as if he was frozen and send in a great cross through the face of goal, we were lucky that none of the opposition attackers could reach it. In the 15th minute Pique had a free header from set-pieces but headed high. In the 17th minute Sanchez broke out on the right and send in a fierce shot towards the goal, but that was denied by the post. In the 24th minute Song saw his shot saved by the keeper after some brilliant link up play between Xavi and Thiago. After the initial tough start we were starting to boss the game. But then against the run of play in the 27th minute went in front after Muniain got past Pique and send in a cross which none of our defenders were able to clear and Susaeta was at hand to finish it off. In the 44th minute Athletic had a great chance to increase after Song and Pique allowed Aduriz to have a free header luckily for use he headed high. We were controlling the midfield after the initial difficult start but with no one interested in getting into the box all our movement were on the lateral direction
Vilanova brought in Adriano for Abidal at the start of the second half. Abidal was removed as a pre-caution as he over-stretched his calf muscle. In the 55th minute Adriano conceded a dangerous free kick at the edge of our box, luckily it hit the bar and stayed out. In the 58th minute Messi came in for Xavi. Immediately Messi started making the difference by linking up with pedro and releasing him to take a shot on target. In the 67th minute Messi draw us level with a completely out of the world goal. He weaved past three players in a tight space and curled the ball into the far corner before another could come near him. In the 69th minute Sanchez put us in front after a brilliantly build up goal. Pique released Alves on the right who sent in a great cross into middle, Messi rose above all and headed it to Sanchez who was onside, turned and finished to give 2-1 goal.
In the 78th minute Iniesta came in for Sanchez. In the 87th Messi had a free kick going just wide off the far post. In the 90th minute Herrera equalised for Bilbao after Song and Adriano failed to clear a cross properly allowing Herrera to take the opportunity.All About FC Barcelona
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