Throwing It All Away; Recreativo-2,Barcelona-2

Barcelona players threw away a fantastic opportunity to put pressure on Madrid, and instead now will be fighting with Villareal to hold on to the second spot. Barcelona went ahead twice in the match only to see their inability to defend the aerial ball taking away two vital points. Rijkaard rightly didn't rush Messi to start and this gave Giovani a chance to start in the line up. Gudjonsen joined Xavi and Toure in midfield behind Ezquerra who till this match was looked as if abandoned by Rijkaard. Milito and Puyol joined with Abidal and Zambrotta in defense.
Barcelona started the game in the best possible way when Eto scored off Giovani cross with just 62 seconds on the clock. Xavi played the ball to Giovani who placed the ball on his left ball to provide the best of crosses which duly met Eto's head. But after that Barcelona lookde pretty much confused in the defense and almost paid the price in the 5th minute when Recreativo failed to equalise. Then in the 11th minute Gudjonsen made an excellent run dribbling past defenders and overcoming tough challenges, but the final ball was interpreted. Then slowly Barcelona started giving all the possesion to Recreativo and it staretd telling when they started creating chances. That was rewarded with a very controversial goal when the linesman ruled that Valdes has spilled the ball across the line from a header from Ruben. The ball never crossed the line , but Recreativo deserved the goal for all the pressure they were able to create. Barcelona had a great chance to go ahead in the injury time of first half when Giovani was played through by Eto, but Recreativo Goal Keeper Sorrentino produced an excellent save.
Barcelona went again ahead in the start of second half when Eto prodeuced an excellent goal from outside the box. But as in the first half Barcelona looked lazy after the goal and Valdes has to make three excellent saves to prevent Recreativo from equalising. Then in the 64th minute Messi was brought in place of Giovanni. In the 68th minute Messi made a great run from the right which was stopped by a desperate defense. Then in the 69th minute Eto shot wide after a difficult one two with Ezquerra. Then in the 71st minute Barcelona defense was left napping and Recreativo scored thanks to huge mistake by Valdes. Then in the desperate dying moments Messi had a huge opportunity when Sorentino put his shot in the path of Messi, Messi should have shot himself rather than trying to cross to Eto. This result officially should have ended Barcelona's quest for La Liga title. the only positives where Eto's return to form and Gudjonsen's and Ezquerra's performance.

Barcelona vs Schalke Photos

Barcelona sets up Manchester United Clash; Barcelona-1,Schalke-0

Barcelona overcame a tricky challenge from the German side to setup a semi final clash with Manchester United. A Yaya Toure goal in the dying minutes of first half was enough to see off Schalke but it cannot be said that Barcelona had a great night. Barcelona included Thuram in the starting eleven in place of Milito and the rest of the side remained the same as the Getafe match except Abidal was brought in. As a Barcelona fan I am too used to seeing Barcelona controlling the game from the beginning. But this game was a different. In the first 15 minutes Schalke bombarded Barcelona goal mouth. In the 7th minute Valdes has to make an excellent save in denying Altintop from the scoring the equaliser in the tie. Then it was Kuranyi who did well to get in between Zamrotta and Thuram but to head wide. In the match report of the first leg I have written that Schalke had a complete control over Barcelona with aerial ball, they repeated the same in this leg also. In the 20th minute Jones saw his shot going wide; then in the next minute Kuranyi failed to connect properly to an excellent cross from the right. In the first 30 minute Barcelona could not match the physical presence of Schalke player and was outplayed completely. The rest of the first half was quite boring with both the team doing nothing in terms of creating goal scoring opportunity. Then in the 43rd minute Yaya Toure put Barcelona in the lead. That goal came from nowhere. Yaya placed the ball to the right giving Bojan the space to move forward, Bojan's cross hit defenders leg and flew up in the air, Schalke defender Krystajic in his attempt to clear the ball kept the ball in play and that too placed the ball in front of Toure who obliged by scoring his first Champions League goal. That was indeed a very, very luck goal. That goal eased up Barcelona and the realisation that Schalke has to score twice to go through gave more confidence in the second half.

Second half started in sharp contrast to the first. Barcelona started more confidently. In the 49th minute Henry shoots high after an excellent ball from Bojan. In the 51st minute Iniesta shot was parried away to safety by Schalke goal keeper. Then in the 64th minute Puyol picks up a yellow card which will see him missing the tie against ManU at Camp Nou. In the 66th minute Xavi shot from outside box was punched away. Then in the 79th minute Kuranyi shot was deflected by Thuram. The rest of the match looked as boring as it can get. Coming to individual performance Bojan looked the best of the lot; Henry and Eto both had a forgettable night. Abidal looks like completely lost.

As far the semi final is concerned, at the moment Manchester United holds all the positives. They are playing better as a unit at the moment, they have the advantage of playing the second leg at home, Barcelona looks in complete shatters; but then Messi should be back for that tie and that might be the match where he decides to show what he really is.