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Jul 27, 2011

FC Barcelona won their second pre-season game of the season in penalty shoot-out after it ended 2-2 in full time. There were plenty of changes in both half and that saw us playing in different rhythm in different half. Starting Eleven for the first half had Valdes, Busquets, Maxwell, Fontas, Riverola, thiago, keita, Iniesta, cuenca, Soriano and Afellay. With a team filled with B team players we surprisingly were dominating the South American side. In the 14th minute we went ahead with a heck of a move which was finished by Thiago. Iniesta took free kick short to Busquets who played it to Thiago in the box, who finsihed really well. That free kick was similar to the one we tried against Manchester United in Wembley, but this time we finished off the move. By the half hour mark our boys have already won the hearts of thousands in Allianz Arena, majority of them have to be Bayern fans. There were cheers for every completed pass and our boys definitely did well in that part.

Keita who was playing an unfamiliar defensive midfielder did a fairly good job. He looked a bit out of place at times especially in the opening phase, but did a brilliant job once we went ahead. So that should present an interesting option for Guardiola. The boss of the first half was without doubt Iniesta. I felt like he was the one who was making the kids tick. It's great to see him in this kind of form as we have a very tough opening to the season especially with two super cup clash with Real Madrid. Out of the B team players Cuenca did a decent job, Soriano didn't get much oppurtunities but was decent with his movement. Thiago showed that his attack minding side of brain usually works with twice the speed. There is no doubt that this kid has to be given pretty good playing time this season. Afellay and Maxwell on the left was stunning with their overlapping runs and Afellay definitely was more than ready to take his chances.

As once again expected there were a ton of changes at the half time. Villa, Pinto, Abidal, Jeffren, Jonathan Dos Santos, Pedro all were brought in.. We were a bit unsettled after so many changes and in the 56th minute paid the price for it with the equaliser. Guardiola brought in Camona after that in place of Busquets. The highly inexperience midfield was struggling to impose their control on the game. But that didn't prevent us from going infront again when Jonathan dos Santos latched on to a great through ball and finished off well. I actually lost count of the number of substitution done by both teams meanwhile. In the 85th minute Pinto made a mess of a regulation clearing trying to dribble pass the attacker only to put it straight into another Internacional player, luckily for him Abidal cleared it on the line. But he was not that lucky from the resulting corner which Internacional duly converted to tie the scoreline at 2-2. Guardiola was seriously pissed off with that goal. Dos Santos was definitely the best player in the second half and everyone else never got into the rhythm in the second half. In the ensuing penalty shoot-out David Villa, Jonathan Dos Santos, Camona and Pinto scored from the spot, Jeffren missed his spot kick. Intrenacional missed two of their spot kicks. That put us through to the final, where we will be playing either AC Milan or Bayern Munich.

All About FC Barcelona


AllAboutFCBarcelona.com is a Blog dedicated to the Most prestigous Club in the world, FC Barcelona by an ardent fan. Here I discuss about the Latest happening surrounding our Club and present my Views about the same.

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