FC Barcelona geared up for the return leg against PSG in spectacular fashion by thrashing Mallorac 5-0 at the Camp Nou. With this win we are able to maintain our 13 point lead with just eight games to go. The team which missed majority of it's stars produced a brilliant show to win the match. The goals which were scored were simply brilliant but the moment of the match was to watch Eric Abidal coming back to action with the fans applauding him at every occasion. As expected Tito Vilanova rested the major stars looking ahead of the PSG match. The frontline saw Cesc playing the false-9 role, a clear indication of how we will start on Wednesday if Messi is not available. Alexis and Tello joined him in attack. The midfield had Iniesta, Thiago and Song. Alves, Pique, Batra and Montoya made the defense infront of Pinto.
In the 4th minute Iniesta played Tello on but he couldn't get his shot on target. In the 9th miute Alves saw his 22 yard out free kick going straight into the keeper's hand. In the 20th minute Cesc Fabregas put us ahead with a move engineered by himself. He collected teh ball in midfield, slipped the ball to Sanchez and went further forward and received a brilliant return from Sanchez and finished in style. In the very next minute Sanchez made it 2-0, again in a move made by Cesc. Cescreceived the ball inside the edge of box, cut inside one defender and unleased a ferocious shot at goal, the keeper managed to defelct the shot but it fell straight to Sanchez. In the 26th minute Iniesta danced into the box skipping past defenders as if they were not there, but his shot was saved by the keeper; to be fair the angle was also a bit tight for him. In the 35th minute Mallorca had a great chance from but Hemed put his header wide of our far post. In the 37th minute Cesc made it 3-0 after another sensational move in which he played the major role. Once again it was a quick give and go with Sanchez which opened the space in the box and Cesc did so well with the finish once again. In the very next minute Alexis made it 4-0, once again Fabregas played a brilliant over head pass putting Sanchez through and he held off the challenge and completed the finish. That goal would have put a huge head-ache on Tito's mind about whom to start against PSG.
In the first minute of the second half itself Fabregas completed his hat-trick making the scoreline 5-0. For a change this time it was Iniesta who sent in a delightful ball spotting Cesc's clever run into the box, he controlled the ball, turned over one defender and rolled the ball into the goal. In the 48th minute Giovani almost scored for Mallorca, had it not been for a brilliant last ditch block by Marc Batra. In the 50th minute Tito gave Jonathan Dos Santos a rare start by taking off captain of the night Iniesta. In the 58th minute Tello flashed a shot wide off the far post. In the 65th minute the Fabregas was taken off and was replaced by Deulefue. In the 70th minute the moment we were waiting for all these times happened - Eric Abidal got his first minutes after replacing Pique. Every time he touched the ball the fans cheered like hell. In the 85th minute Sanchez has to be taken off as he has picked a knock and we had to play the rest of the minute with one man short.
It was a great perfromance especially considering the fact that we missed a lot of our stars. Okay, Mallorca defense has been very susceptible but the performnace of our boys was very good. It may have opened more questions than answers, I doubt. First of all it cleared the role in which he could excel at Barca - either a False-9 or advanced Attacking Midfielder. Tito needs to solve this first to get the best our of Cesc. Coming to individual performances, Cesc Fabregas was brilliant. I haven't seen him playing so well at Barca ever. And maybe we need to play him more in that role to get the best out of it.
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