Barcelona 1-1 Athletic Bilbao
This game was supposed to be easy for Barcelona.
The La Liga supernovas, heavy favourites by La Liga predictions to win the league and the Copa del Rey, suffered consecutive poor results by their high standards. Their last victory was a steely victory against Real Sociedad in the middle of September. Their position at the top was in danger, with a maximum of five clubs ready to put on the hurt at Barca within the next five fixtures.
Given the dire situation, you would’ve thought that Ernest o Valverde played their best players in this match. However, he did the unthinkable. Many SBOBET football fans were equally surprised when they saw the Starting XI.
Lionel Messi was nowhere near the pitch to start the match. And he had to watch the only club he has ever played for suffer for a long period of time before he had to step in and save their hides once again.
Highlights of the game
Of course, Valverde’s decision to not play Messi at the start of this match for the sake of rotation is a heavy point of contention among the ever-loyal and vocal fans that flock to the Camp Nou every home game. Which manager with a speck of common sense would pull his star player out of the line-up in the midst of a poor run of form?
Valverde made a very good point in defence of his decision, saying that resting his stars will help the team in the long run as the season is still far from over. Luis Suarez, the Blaugrana‘s star striker, echoed his manager’s decision and said that they cannot rely on Messi to do everything for them.
However, the problem is that it seemed like they cannot actually accomplish anything without their star man.
To their credit, they did start the game running. Suarez launched a free kick in the seventh minute that flew just wide of the left post. However, Athletic Bilbao fired back a warning shot of their own when Inaki Williams found himself free to power a pinpoint cross towards the goal. Fortunately for them, the ball flew wide of the right post.
And the fears of many Barcelona fans were realised when Oscar de Marcos scored a goal after a bit of beautiful teamwork. Markel Susaeta fired a beautiful cross to the right side of the goal, placing the ball just in front of goal. De Marcos made an immaculate run to beat the offside trap and punch the ball past Marc-Andre ter Stegen and get the first goal of the game.
Philippe Coutinho tried to score a late equaliser when he jumped high as a salmon to meet a cross and head the ball towards the bottom-left corner. His superb effort, however, was blocked by Unai Simon to end the half with Athletic Bilbao finding themselves in an unbelievable situation.
At this point, plenty of Barca fans would be fuming at Valverde’s decision to sit out Busquets and Messi. The two could have done more to make sure this wouldn’t happen. They could have scored three goals if Busquets was there to make the pass and Messi to finish it off. Some were probably getting flashbacks of their horrible loss to Leganes.
The two eventually entered the pitch during the early minutes of the reset, and the fans were desperate for them to do something with the football. Philippe Coutinho fluffed a chance to equalise in the 63rd minute when he over-hit his shot from point-blank range. Messi almost sent the crowd to ecstasy in the 77th minute, but his first-time effort hit the post!
Eventually, the little maestro delivered on his promise and managed to salvage a draw. Leo’s sheer dominance on the right forced the defence to adjust to him. He made a piercing run towards the goal and fired a shot that Simon saved. He gathered the rebound, passed it to Munir El Haddadi, and the 23-year-old Spaniard tipped the ball into the net.
Camp Nou was understandably relieved after that goal. However, they didn’t get enough time to try for a winner as nothing significant happened after that match.
Key statistics
This game will be included in many La Liga 2018 highlights for the wrong reasons.
Barcelona had clear control of the match. They had the lion’s share of the ball with 70% possession, made 20 shots with eight being on target and four being blocked. They had 21 free kicks and four corner attempts. They also forced Simon to make seven big saves. The Bilbao defence had to cede 18 fouls to get this one point.
While Barcelona now haven’t lost their last 22 matches in all competitions at Camp Nou, this has got to be the most frustrating result for them. They were supposed to win this. They were supposed to extend their chokehold on the La Liga title.
However, they messed up. And they only have themselves to blame.
What’s next?
Bilbao will have to feel confident after getting such a result at Camp Nou. Their next opponent will be Real Sociedad at home, and they better hope that they break the winless duck this game.
Meanwhile, Barcelona will have to put their domestic issues to rest as they will now have to travel to London and face Tottenham Hotspur. Tottenham aren’t at their best right now, and this is the best opportunity for them to try and get their act together.
Their next opponent in the league, meanwhile, is Valencia. While they are far from the being the toughest opponent at the moment, Los Che can definitely pull the rug underneath their feet.
And given how Barca is at the moment, that may just happen. We can only hope that Messi won’t be benched this time, either.
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