FC Barcelona vs Deportivo Pictures on 17/01/09

FC Barcelona Player Rating against Deportivo on 17/1/09

Valdes - 6 - Nothing to do throughout the match.

Alves - 9 - The best Barca player on the pitch. Totally dominated the right wing. Set up two goals and created two excellent cross which Messi headed wide. You cannot ask more from him.

Pique - 7 - Lack of action was his only problem. But cleared the line whenver called upon even it was too few.

Puyol - 8 - Another Captain's performance. Solid in the back and created the last goal with excellent vision in the box.

Abidal - 7.5 - Have completely silenced his critics with a no non-sense performance from December. A usual composed and contained performance. Send in some delightful through ball.

Xavi - 8.5 - Another great performance by the midfield general. No doubt why Ferguson is interested in him. Great vision, passing and unselfish play by xavi Hernandez.

Toure - 7.5 - Was overshadowed by his team mates but his performance was solid. he formed the rock on which Barca could builf their attack.

Keita - 8 - He looked like a total misfit as an attacking midfield in earlier matches, but not in this one. he was involved in 80% of Barca move. one thing I like about him is his eagerness to get into the box. Great performance.

Messi - 7.5 - As usual great performance. Could have elevated a bit but then when his team mates are playing like this he even can take some well deserved rest. His partnership with Alves was great but wasted two excellent cross form the latter.

Eto - 7.5 - Another solid performance. Leading the league scorers sheet at the moment.

Henry - 8 - The best of the front three. He was involved in all attack.

Substitutes:

Iniesta - 8.5 - Got only few minutes to impress. Did his job to perfection. What else you can say about a player who had a shot at goal and created two goals in allowed twenty minutes.

Man Of The Match - Dani Alves

Deportivo Demolished; FC Barcelona-5, Deportivo-0

FC Barcelona broke the record for most points by a La Liga outfit in the first half os any season by a commanding demolition of Deportivo La Coruna at the Camp Nou. With the 5-0 destruction of Deportivo Fc Barcelona has amassed 50 points by the half stage of league. Three of FC barcelona's front men all got into the score sheet with Henry and Eto scoring twice and Messi opening the scoring. It is an astonishing record with Barca winning 16 games, drawing twice and losing once to Numancia in the first match of the League. FC Barcelona against Deportivo fired at all cylinders and it's good to see the team hit their top form especially with many important Cup matches coming in future. Guardiola decided to start Iniesta from the bench in the match. Valdes was back at goal; Alves, Pique, Puyol and Abidal formed the defense. Keita and Toure joined Xavi in the middle. The front three was the usual Henry, Eto and Messi trio.

FC Barcelona started dominating from the word go. In the first minute Henry's shot was saved by Deportivo goal keeper Aranzubia with his legs. In the next minute Aranzubia denied Henry again by parrying away a powerful Henry shot. In the 21st minute Xavi passed the ball to Messi on the right after Deportivo player Rodriguez gifted the ball to Xavi; Messi sets on with his diagonal run and shot back at the Goal from the edge of the box; the ball beat Aranzubia and squeezed in off the far post. In the 27th minute Henry doubled Barca's lead with a great header from an excellent Alves cross. In the 34th minute Messi wasted an open chance to go three goals ahead, when he headed wide another excellent Alves cross with only the Goal Keeper to beat. In the 36th minute Abidal played Keita on with a superb long through ball, but Keita's shot was deflected for a corner. In the 41st minute Eto got into the score sheet with an easy tap in after the initial Keita header from an Alves cross was saved by Aranzubia.

Second half started with FC Barcelona shifting a couple of gear down. There was no urgency shown, but that was understandable. In the 52nd minute Messi great shot was saved by Goal Keeper; Messi skipped past two defenders after receiving the ball from Henry. In the 71st minute Guardiola brought in Iniesta for Toure. There was chanting of Iniesta's name all around the stadium before he was brought in. In the next minute after his introduction Iniesta showed why he was loved by the Camp Nou faithfuls. Iniesta's excellent side-footed volley was saved by Aranzubia from a Henry cross. In the 75th minute Alves saw his free kick dipping just high of the post. In the 77th minute Messi wastes another excellent cross from Alves with a wide header similar to the first half. In the 82nd minute Hnery made it 4-0 with an easy tap in. Iniesta great vision and pass found an excellent Xavi run on the left; Xavi unselfishly cuts the ball back to Henry to score. In the 84th minute Aranzubia was sent off for bringing down Puyol after Iniesta has played him through. The move was started by Puyol in his own half, he continued his run and was picked up by Iniesta with an excellent pass. Eto scored from the resulting penalty to go 5-0 up.

This one was another great win for Barca, probably the best after the winter break. There were some exceptional performance mostly Henry, Keita, Xavi and Messi. But one guy whose performance gave me so much joy was Iniesta. There was two reason for it - number one is that he was back to his best; he wasn't up to his best in previous matches and his coming back to form is the best thing for Barca as I believe he is the most talented and important player in the squad after Messi. Second this performance came in the midfield, that means Henry need not worry much about his position and soon Barca will have a midfield featuring Toure, Iniesta and Xavi regularly.