Losing More Grounds on the Champions

Barcelona inherent lack of ability to kill the match off came back to haunt in the last quarter of the match against Bilbao. Courtesy of this draw they now find adrift of the champions by a huge nine points. Barcelona went into the match with their task really cut down - they need to win this and hope Villareal at least hold the champions. Neither did happen.

Barcelona started with the Deco, Xavi and Iniesta in the midfield. Did they paid the price of not having a tall Defensive Midfielder? I don't know even though they may be weak in defense because of that, these three should have provided more attacking stint. Deco was as usual very rusty. But the real surprise was Iniesta who had an average night and that showed in Barcelona's attacking chart. The game started really boring; it took quarter an hour for Barcelona to create a meaning full attack. Messi was the first to test the Bilbao Goalie in the 17th minute. Messi received a throw in and turned inside of his marker and shot only for the Goal keeper to save. In the 33rd minute Athletic Bilbao counter attacked from the left and the cross found Aduriz in the box, who suddenly found himself one on one with the Goal Keeper, but he shot too high. In the 35th minute Iniesta attempted a long through ball to Messi, Messi was beaten on the ball by athletic Goal Keeper but the scrambled away ball found Bojan who slotted the ball past the keeper into the far corner. Bojan did not have a very good night, but he is keeping up with his amazing strike rate in the Main division also.

Barcelona started the second half in the right fashion with their famed attacking line twice raiding the Bilbao goal led by Messi. The first attack saw Messi feeding Bojan, who actually struggled to control it but laid it to Henry who tried to find the far right corner, only to miss by a couple of inches. The second attack saw Messi dribbling up to the line in the box drawing a bunch of defenders along with him, he pulled the ball back to Deco who shot high. In the 56th minute Valdes was called upon to make a decent save off Javi Martinez after Xavi gave away the ball cheaply. Then in the 71st minute Iniesta found sylvinho down the left and his cross found Puyol but he defenders did well to deflect it wide. Then in the 79th minute Barcelona were made to rue all the missed chance as Thuram tried to get in front of Llorente only to deflect the ball into his own Goal. Thuram did not make much mistake in the night (apart from the own goal) but i though he was too slow. The best player on the pitch for Barcelona was Messi, who couldn't do too much - that explains Barcelona’s poor performance.

Henry had a very bad night and there is high chance he will be overlooked when Ronnie come next week. My suggestion is that Rijkaard can try Ezquerra down the left now maybe. Now the big question on every bodies mind will be - Can Barcelona overhaul the nine points lead? There is precisely two reasons why i would say its difficult.

1) Barcelona does not look like capable of winning all their away games.

2) Madrid looks like they are not in the mood to drop a single point now.

Barcelona needs lot of help from other clubs to come near Madrid. But there is not much club in La Liga which looks like will be able to cut down the resilient Madrid side. Anyhow we will hope that they will slip sometime and Barcelona more importantly will take advantage of that. I pray and Hope that the title will be decided when Barcelona will take on Madrid in Barnebeu. For that to happen Barcelona needs to put up so much work, and lady luck has to smile on them relentlessly.

Bojan Goal

Thuram Own Goal

Iniesta Gets the Contract

Andres Iniesta extended his contract with barcelona till 2014. the contract was due to expire in 2010. He still had two years in his existing contract but the Club might be forced to offer him a much better deal after all the transfer rumours. Last transfer window there was too much speculation surrounding him with Madrid's wish to sign him. But there was no concern shown about the speculation by barcelona. Maybe they know the kid too well. Anyway its not known how much he is going to take home weekly, but his Buy-out clause is being increased to 150 million euros. So that's a statement made by barcelona about how much they rate him. There were complains that he was one of the worst paid stars among the barcelona players (Iniesta never made any complaints), hope now he get paid as good as others also.

Iniesta is a fabulous product which barcelona youth academy should be proud of. And the extended contract should be a Medal of Honour for the hardwork put by the Academy to churn out talents like Messi, Xavi, iniesta etc. He himself d confessed that his first year in the academy was very hard. But then leaving home in Fuentealbilla at an age of 12 is not that easy. He may be the most hardworking player in this Barcelona side. With his skill, flair and hardwork there is no doubt he will become a Barcelona giant pretty soon. It's sad that he hasn't found a regular place in the National side starting eleven, but he is one of Spain's key player. Let's hope he can take Spain to glory in the Euro.

For Rijkaard this contract extension should be sweet music to ears. Iniesta is the most key player in his scheme of things. In Iniesta Rijkaard has a trump card which can be placed anywhere in the field, ofcourse expect Goal Keeper. Hope this contract extention inspires him to do more and more great things at the club.

A Good Victory : Villareal-0,Barcelona-0

Just completed watching the highlights of the game and have to admit that the match looked like having more memorable moments than I expected. But whatever a goal less draw at El Madrigal will be as good as a victory only if Barcelona can finish their good work in the return leg. I believe they can do it.

The first Barcelona attack came in the fifth minute, when Iniesta received a cross from Deco. Iniesta dribbled into the the box well and crowded by a bunch of defenders, in the mayhem the ball reached Henry who could only place the ball just wide of the post. Villareal responded in the 16th minute with Nihat shooting wide of the Goal. In the 20th minute Victor Valdez, who was Barcelona's best player on fieldtheir produced a spectacular save from a tremendous long range effort from Rossi. The majority of the first half remained with Villareal, with Barcelona attempting to break the Villareal defence with some cut through pass. In the 18th minue oone of such pass found Giovanni, who tried to curl the ball towards the far post. He did curl the ball, but never had any power to get past the Villareal Goalkeeper. In the 37th minute Valdez has to produce another magnificient save inorder to deny Villareal going one up in the tie. Pires cross was beautifully headed down and set for final assault but Nihat for my view hit too straigt to Valdez. In the next minute Cazorla attempted a long range shot on goal which went just high, but Valdez had that covered too.

Barcelona brought in Messi in place of Giovanni in the start of second half and that started changing the game in favour of Barcelona a little. In the 51st minute barcelona started producing a glimpse of the vintage quick feet attacking style with so many players getting involved with their quick touch but the Villareal defense held their fort. In the 62nd minute Iniesta was denied by a wonderful save by Villareal Goalie, Diego Lopez. Iniesta had a great evening and that one looked like going in. By this time Messi started to show a glimpse of what we were missing for sometime. As a contrast to first half, villareal never had any decent chance till the 75th minute when Valdez threw up another fine save from Senna. Subsequently Barcelona started attacking more and resulted in Iniesta and Bojan both shooting wide in a space of two minutes. Barcelona ended the game as usual with a small fright with Valdes again saving Nihat's free kick.

All in all it was a very good match and a much betetr result also. The only negative point would be Messi trying to score using his hand. The defense looked like solid, the attacking stict looks like coming back and Messi is surely coming back actually he is almost there.

Highlights Of The Match