A recap of Barcelona's disappointing 2-2 draw with Deportivo La Coruna at the Camp Nou
FC Barcelona threw it all away for the second La Liga weekend in succession, once again conceding a late equaliser to drop two points despite dominating proceedings against their opposition. Last week it was Valencia CF, this time it was Deportivo La Coruna who mustered an even more impressive turnaround to claw back from a two goal deficit to hold the Blaugrana to a 2-2 draw for the second season in succession. Goals from Lionel Messi and Ivan Rakitić had handed the hosts a lead, only for Depor to spoil the party thanks to Lucas Perez and Alex Bergantinos.
|
Barcelona |
Deportivo La Coruna |
|
|
Possession |
69% |
31% |
|
Total Shots |
17 |
13 |
|
Shots on Target |
7 |
4 |
|
Corners |
6 |
2 |
|
Fouls |
4 |
11 |
|
Offsides |
4 |
6 |
|
Yellow Cards |
0 |
2 |
|
Red Cards |
0 |
0 |
With Neymar out through injury, Luis Enrique was forced to make one change to the side that drew with Valencia CF last week; the Brazilian dropped out and Sandro Ramirez got the nod ahead of Munir El Haddadi to join Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez in attack. On the bench, Enrique was pleased to welcome back Jeremy Mathieu and Sergi Roberto, both of whom had missed the past few matches through injury.
Occasionally, Barcelona have somewhat misfired when they’ve been placed in the early afternoon kick-off slot on a Saturday, but in this match at least they were keen to start well and make an impression. The movement of Luis Suarez was causing the Deportivo defense all kinds of problems, which combined with the intelligent passing from Lionel Messi and Andrés Iniesta could have led to a couple of early chances.
As it were, Deportivo stood firm in the early exchanges but it must be noted that the warning signs were there; the Barcelona passing was crisp, accurate and incisive. The movement was smart and potentially dangerous; at some stage the two would synchronize on the same attack and we would be in with a chance of threatening Argentine goalkeeper, German Lux.
The first real shot on goal came just before the quarter of an hour mark; Lionel Messi, who had started the match brightly, picked up a free-kick in a central position roughly 30 yards from goal. The foul wasn’t particularly dangerous, just a tug on his shirt as he looked to breeze past a defender. The four-time FIFA Ballon d’Or winner measured his approach and went for goal, but while his effort was on target, it lacked the power required to beat Lux.
At the opposite end of the field, Deportivo launched an instant counter attack of their own; a diagonal lofted pass was too tricky for Gerard Piqué to read and fell perfectly for Jonathan Rodriguez who had an excellent opportunity to break the deadlock. However, racing from goal, Claudio Bravo expertly closed down the angle and smothered Jonathan’s shot for the Blaugrana to clear their lines. It was an early scare, and a timely reminder of Depor’s superb away form.
Barça were going to have to step their game up if they wanted to win this one and for the most part, they really struggled to do so. Sure, they were keeping possession and looking dangerous, but looks were deceiving, because Lux was having a very quiet game keeping goal for the visitors. Most of our chances were actually coming from set pieces, and in fact that’s where the first goal came from too – another free-kick, roughly 30 yards from goal.
Really, it was in an almost identical position to the one we saw earlier in the evening; this time Suarez was the man fouled from behind. Well, by fouled I’m never quite sure with Suarez, but that’s what the referee said anyway so up stepped Lionel Messi to bend in an other-worldly effort that nestled into the top corner of Lux’s goal. It was an incredible striker from an incredible player: minute 39, and FC Barcelona were ahead.
The one-goal lead was maintained for the final few minutes of the first-half, but Barça headed for the dressing room knowing that in all likelihood, one goal wouldn’t be enough to secure victory today. Deportivo were looking dangerous, and if the past week has taught us anything, it’s that a one goal lead is rarely enough.
Neither side opted to make a change at the break, although in terms of attitude, Deportivo came out a changed side. They took the game to the Blaugrana in the opening stages of the second period; unfortunately, it was the goalless Jonathan who was having most of their chances, rather than the prolific Lucas Perez. As such, Bravo was rarely called upon to make a save and when he was, it was straight-forward stuff for a keeper of his calibre.
The fast start from the visitors naturally subsided as the second period dragged on; Barça began to dominate once more and for a brief moment, it appeared as though Enrique’s side had claimed their second goal of the evening. Some intricate build-up play saw Sandro and Luis Suarez carve through the Depor defense for a Suarez tap-in, only for the assistant referee to raise his flag for offside on the Uruguayan. It seemed like the wrong call, although replays were inconclusive.
Not that it mattered though; within minutes Barça had their second goal anyway as finally, one of our many shots from outside the area found the back of the net. Ivan Rakitić was the man to grab the goal and what a goal it was; the Croatian midfielder got the ball from out of his feet, got his head up and unleashed a rocket into the corner of the net. Lux had no chance at all, and Barça could relax: with a two goal lead and less than half an hour to play, this one was over.
Cue some changes from Enrique; Munir El Haddadi replaced Sandro, who had ran himself ragged for the cause today and Sergi Roberto got a great ovation as he replaced Ivan Rakitić, who also received a fantastic reception from the Camp Nou crowd for his thunderous strike in the 62nd minute.
Even trailing by two goals, Deportivo continued to attack when they could and matched the Blaugrana in having a goal disallowed; Miguel Cardoso cut inside of one challenge and pulled the trigger; his effort was blocked, looped into the air, was parried onto the crossbar by Claudio Bravo and then bundled home, albeit by the offside Lucas Perez.
They would atone for this moments later though by pulling a goal back for real; Depor substitute Cardoso again made an impact his pass to find Lucas Perez drifting free behind the Barça defense was superb and the Spanish striker made no mistake with a composed finish to notch his 11th goal of the La Liga season. Game on?
You better believe it. Barcelona’s passing, although crisp and accurate earlier in the match was now mediocre at best and Deportivo were taking advantage. Giving the ball away cheaply, Barça were made to rue their mistakes as Deportivo promptly tied the game up at 2-2 courtesy of a fine finish from Alex Bergantinos. The same Alex Bergantinos who scored his first ever goal in the top flight in an enthralling 4-5 defeat to Barcelona back in 2012 – isn’t in funny how history has a tendency to repeat itself where we are involved?
As much as each side pushed forward to try and grab a winner, their efforts were ultimately wasted – the score remained at 2-2 and Barça could only regret dropping another couple of points to once again leave the La Liga title race wide open. Que sera sera, and whatnot.
Next up, Barcelona travel to Japan for the FIFA Club World Cup, where thankfully draws are an entirely unknown concept. Onwards, upwards – Visca el Barça!
| Roll Call Info | |
|---|---|
| Total comments | 168 |
| Total commenters | 30 |
| Commenter list | 1ONE1Y, Anders Thomassen, Anirudh_Kul, Ashraf Arefin, BDBarca, BarcaBarca, Bostjan Cernensek, DudeBV, Dybalaxneymar, Iniesta_Fiesta, KiwiBarca, NamesTroyResideInTheDMV, Piyush_, Som-i-Serem, Steven Cordero, TheGodfather21, VarmaFCB, Willis1984, akash verma, asherdgreat1, el_uruguayo, feeya7, fib1985, hdp78, michael.olivier, navjot4664, shinigamiBarca, syredeathtrooper, une see, vireyda |
| Story URLs | |
| # | Commenter | # Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Som-i-Serem | 25 |
| 2 | KiwiBarca | 18 |
| 3 | navjot4664 | 14 |
| 4 | Bostjan Cernensek | 14 |
| 5 | BDBarca | 13 |
| 6 | feeya7 | 12 |
| 7 | NamesTroyResideInTheDMV | 8 |
| 8 | une see | 6 |
| 9 | DudeBV | 6 |
| 10 | Steven Cordero | 6 |
| 11 | syredeathtrooper | 5 |
| 12 | TheGodfather21 | 4 |
| 13 | fib1985 | 4 |
| 14 | el_uruguayo | 4 |
| 15 | 1ONE1Y | 4 |
| 16 | Ashraf Arefin | 3 |
| 17 | hdp78 | 3 |
| 18 | vireyda | 2 |
| 19 | Anders Thomassen | 2 |
| 20 | BarcaBarca | 2 |
| 21 | Anirudh_Kul | 2 |
| 22 | Iniesta_Fiesta | 2 |
| 23 | VarmaFCB | 2 |
| 24 | Piyush_ | 1 |
| 25 | Willis1984 | 1 |
| 26 | asherdgreat1 | 1 |
| 27 | shinigamiBarca | 1 |
| 28 | michael.olivier | 1 |
| 29 | Dybalaxneymar | 1 |
| 30 | akash verma | 1 |
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