First Defeat; Wisla Krakow -1, Barcelona F C - 0

Wisla Krakow became the first Polish side to defeat Barcelona, all thanks to a goal from Brazilian Cleber. Cleber's 52nd minute goal thus condemned Barcelona to their first defeat of the season and first in the Guardiola regime. This leg was like a dead rubber and the lack of intensity could be attributed to that. I have written a post about the problems Guardiola needs to tackle in this season, and I am proven right by this result. This match should not be considered alone; instead it should be analysed along with a last gasp victory against Boca. These two matches were the tougheset we have encountered this season. One was against a good opponent at home without Messi, other one was an away match again without Messi. Barcelona fans will start pointing out the unavailability of Messi as the decisive factor and most probably will curse Blatter and FIFA for this. But I have a question - If Messi gets injured in mid-season, what will happen? This result proves that we need a reinforcement who can give a different option Up front. May be Arshavin is still that option. Whatever let's comeback to the game. Guardiola is stubborn in proving my expected squad wrong. He used Iniesta in the far right upfront along with Eto and Henry. Toure, Keita and Xavi formed the midfield. On what basis did Guardiola assumed that Keita will do a job like Deco and Iniesta in that position? This also prove one more thing - that only one of Toure or Keita is needed in the starting eleven, especially when playing a 4-3-3 formation. The defense was made up of Pique, Abidal, Puyol and Alves. As usual Valdez did all kind of non-sence under the bar.

There were some early attack from Barcelona in the first half. All were organised by the most unlikeliest of source - Thierry Henry. Ya, you heard it right. He had one of the better games and could be highlighted as the best player in Barcelona attack. The first attack Eto wasted with a weak header, the second was intercepted by the defense ahead of Iniesta. Then in the 20th minute Valdez showed his true colour, he held on to a back pass from Pique for long and when pressurised cleared it straight to the path of Lobodzinski whose shot went agaonisingly wide of the post. Then in the 36th minute Barcelona's inherent problem with aerial ball came into forefront. Marek Zienczuk's cross from the left was headed by an unmarked Pawel Brozek, but Valdez did well to hold on to a difficult shot. Just three minutes to the half time Barcelona's best moment of the match came from an Iniesta run who placed the ball for Henry, but Henry placed it wide.

After the half Barcelona conceded their first goal of this year's champions league competition. Cleber was left unmarked in the 52nd minute corner and valdez could not stop his header. Valdez should have done better than that. Barcelona reacted immediately with Eto forcing a save from the keeper after wonderful work by Iniesta. In the 62nd minute Pique's header was directed on to the crossbar from a Xavi corner. In the 69th minute Barcelona was almost caught off gaurd by a rampant Lobodzinski from the right but his shot went wide. Then in the 81st minute Tore wasted another chance and just before the end Bojan who came as a substitute wasted the most important chance after some initial good work.

Alarms bell should already run across Barcelona line-up because of this defeat. But many questions have to be raised about the line-up selected. If Guardiola was interested in having both Keita and Toure in the line-up, wouldn't it be sensible to use a 4-4-2 formation. Then he is the boss.

Wisla vs Barcelona 2nd Leg Preview

Barcelona will be eager to finish off a Job well done in the first leg with an emphatic victory over Wisla Krakow away from Home. The tie might have already decided and there is a hell lot of a chance that we might see a very boring match. This one leg was billed as the most controversial in recent Barcelona history as the Club entered into a tussle with Fifa over the right to retain Lionnel Messi. Fifa chief Blatter played a master stroke to get Messi to Beijing, which eventually resulted in Barcelona giving away the claim of player after the arbitration was ruled in their favour. There is a high chance of the players not taking the game seriously, but that factor does instill some fear as our back four never looked like comfortable in the pre-season.

In the first leg it was Eto who outshone everyone with his double strike and also by winning the fans back. He looks like is fit and is playing at his best. After quite some match Henry had a great night that day. But it is too early to say whether he will continue that form. Barcelona is expected to start with henry and Eto upfront. But who will partner him is still a question. Logically it should be Bojan but then Guardiola preferred Pedro ahead of him in the last match. Similiarly who among Keita and Toure will start the game is also a question. It is likely that Guardiola prefers Keita ahead of Toure to form the modfield with Iniesta and Xavi. Puyol, Marquez, caceres and Abidal should make the defense. I do expect valdes to guard the goal.

Watch Out, Pep

The way our defense conceded the goal against Boca Juniors raises many questions. The biggest of it all will be whether our defense will stand tall against quality opponents. If we look carefully at the personals employed in Barcelona defense namely Puyol, Marquez, Caceres, Pique, Alves, Abidal, it is really hard to understand this defensive mess. Most of them are the best you can get in their respective position. But even then when they form the haunted Barcelona defense they start to make the silliest mistakes. I don't think Guardiola could hire anyone more to strengthen the defense. But still he cannot afford to look away to these inherent problems.

Our defense was one of the weakest in terms of defending the aerial ball. It was like that for some season. Even when we won the Champions League and the La Liga title in 2006, we were very susceptible in air. To overcome that Rijkaard bought Zambrotta, Abidal, Toure and Thuram. Rijkaard went but the defensive susceptibility to aerial ball remained intact. These all gentlemen when they play for their respective national sides looks so assured in air but not with Barcelona. If you add to this the way we have conceded goals against lesser known opponents in the pre-season, we could be in for more trouble. But the way we conceded the goal against Boca Juniors raises serious concerns. In that goal the entire defense moved to cut off one person opening up two Boca Juniors players who only had Pinto to be beaten. A similar goal was scored in our pre-season also; I don't remember which team scored against us. In that case also the entire defense moved together to cut off a cross from left apparently leaving players unmarked in the far right post. These problems did not feature in any reports as Barcelona was comfortably out-scoring other teams. But against quality opponents this could be the difference in winning and losing the match. So the first task for Guardiola is to install some discipline in defense in terms of man-marking. It is easier said than done. But he needs to address this to turn this team into world beaters again. This should also some what negate the serial vulnerability.

The second problem for Barcelona especially last season was our inability to score from corners. Many top notch sides were content in conceding corners against us. Manchester United semi final clash was a prime example. Will they do the same with other teams like Chelsea, Milan etc? Absolutely not. Usually any defense concedes a corner only if they have no other option, but against Barca that is their first option. In majority of last season game the number of corners ran to two digits. But their conversion rates were appalling. Another problem was the lack of an alternate plan. Everyone knows how Barcelona plays - a series of slick short passes. But sometimes this comes as a cropper, in such a scenario the team lacks a secondary plan which can be at least used to unsettle the opponents. Guardiola seriously have to decide who is going to take those free kicks. He has to designate the task to two persons so that they can take more effort in getting those on target.