FC Barcelona closed the lead at the top of the League to three points with a brilliant 4-1 victory against real zaragoza away from home. Once again, as it's been the trend in recent away matches - we were made to play in another potato pitch. But it didn't matter as we won convincingly by scoring 4 goals. It was pretty eventful with Aranda missing a penalty in the first half, then giving them the lead. But our boys showed the character with Puyol equalising and Messi putting us ahead in the fist half itself. Messi then scored from a spot kick and Pedro then finished off the match in the injury time with a well taken goal. Guardiola starte both Iniesta and Xavi from the bench. Sanchez came back to the starting line-up after and formed the attacking trio with Pedro and Messi. The midfield had Keita, Thiago and Fabregas. The defense which was really stretched following Pique being ruled out had all available members lining up - Adriano, Puyol, Mascherano and Alves.
In the 2nd minute Cesc played a beautiful back heel to free Sanchez in the box, but Messi couldn't reach Sanchez's brilliant cross. In the 5th minute we had a scare when a cross from the left almost found Aranda infront of goal, luckily Puyol's desperate lunge helped to clear the danger. The pitch was as bad as it can get and we were struggling to go with our passing style of football. In the 19th minute Messi found a bit of space in the box, but Zaragoza defender was able to pull a sliding block on his shot at goal. In the 23rd minute the referee awarded a penalty in his attempt to clear the ball after it hit the post from a brilliant counter attack. Valdes made amense of that by pulling a brilliant save of that penalty and keeping the scoreline at nil-nil. In the 29th minute Zaragoza finally took the lead after a brilliant through ball caught out our defense, Valdes made the save but the rebound hit Mascherano and went in. In the 36th minute Alexis Sanchez saw his shot blocked by keeper, but the rebound fell to Cesc who only had to tap in but missed somehow. The resulting corner anyway earned us the equaliser through our Captain Caveman, Puyol which was basically gifetd by Zaragoza keeper. In the 39th minute Lionel Messi put Barca 2-1 ahead after Sanchez set in a great counter and squared the ball to Messi, who blasted the ball to the top near corner. In the 44th minute Lafita tried a low shot through the legs of Mashcerano at the edge of the box, but it was straight at Valdes. In the 45th minute Abrahams got a well deserved second yellow after pulling down Sanchez purposefully on the left flank putting Zaragoza a man down.
Even with the disadvantage of going down to ten man, Zaragoza started brightly in the start of second half. They had one shot which went just high off the bar and a clear penalty appeal after Keita unknowingly handled the ball int the box. In the 56th minute Guardiola brought in Busquets for Keita. In the 60th minute Cesc Fabregas palyed a chipped ball into the box spotting Thiago's run into the box, but Thiago just couldn't reach it. In the 63rd minute Alexis turned his marker inside in the box, but his shot was brilliantly saved by the keeper. In the 68th minute Guardiola brought in Montoya for Alves, who seemed to have a bit of an injury. Even though we had the numerical advantage but we were not able to score that third goal. In the 73rd minute Messi played a ball through four defender putting Adriano through , Adriano tried to square it to Cesc but he couldn't reach that. In the 77th minute Lionel Messi won a corner after the Zaragoza defense somehow prevented him from taking his shot. In the 81st minute Sanchez sent in a great cross finding Thiago in the box, who surprisingly couldn't make a strong contact. In the 82nd minute Messi was put through but his attempted chip over the on rushing keeper went high over the bar. In the 85th minute Alexis won a penalty after he was brought down in the box. Messi made no mistake with the goal from the spot kick taking Barca 3-1 ahead. In the 89th minute Alexis played a brilliant ball putting Messi through, but a sliding challenge too the ball away from Messi. In the 90th minute Xavi was brought in for Cesc Fabregas. In the 92nd minute Pedro scored a brilliantly build up goal to make it 4-1. The build up was brilliant. Thiago played a ball into pedro's path, who flicked it to Messi, who returned it back to Pedro and with only the keeper to beat he made no mistake.
Once again it was a tough away trip with a pitch which looked like been dug up to receive us. But once again we came out with a very favorable decison. We have cut down the lead at top to three points and Real Madrid will have to play their heart out to restore the six point lead when they face Valencia tomorrow night. Messi with two goals and one assist had an exceptional night. but my choice of Man of the Match has to be Alexis. He was brilliant on the night - setting up Messi for the second goal and winning the penalty. He was brilliant with his overall play and involvement. Thiago who had another rare start did brilliantly playing a holding midfielder at times and then turning the creative head at other times. Another good news was seeing Pedro getting in the score sheet and he did deserve that from his overall play.
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