Barcelona remain leaders of La Liga after a tough road trip to Real Bétis on Saturday, with the Blaugranes leaving Seville with a narrow 2-0 victory thanks to goals from Ivan Rakitic and Luis Suárez. In a tricky match against a disciplined defensive side, the Catalans showed patience and their talents came through in the second period, enough to secure a win to stay at the top of the table. It wasn't easy, but the job is done away from home.
FIRST HALF
The match had a dangerous start for Barça, with Bétis defending well and quickly igniting a few counter-attacks that caught the Blaugrana defenders off guard. But the visitors solved that problem with better passing, and slowly started to dominate the actions and pin Bétis into their own box. Neymar was active, always looking to win individual duels with his skills and coming close to scoring with a good shot that was stopped by Ádan.
Bétis' defense was very compact and difficult to break down, but then center-back Westermann was sent off for two very dumb yellow cards. The Verdiblancos had to give up attacking to park the bus even more, and they had success keeping a clean sheet in the initial period, thanks in part to Barça's inability to find an accurate final pass before hitting the target.
At halftime, a good Barça performance, but the need of second half goals to secure a victory and climb back to the top of the table.
SECOND HALF
Barça needed an early goal to avoid desperation and to stop Bétis from getting any sort of confidence to go forward and trouble the Catalan defense, and that's what happened. After a great buildup, Messi played a beautiful ball to the box, and thanks to a mistake by the Bétis goalkeeper, Rakitic was alone in front of the goal and easily scored the opener.
After getting their much desired goal, the Blaugrana continued to dominate possession and create chances, needed one more goal to secure a victory. And it came after another moment of genius by Messi, who delivered a spectacular, perfect through ball to Suárez, who finally beat the keeper and doubled Barça's lead.
In the end, a much needed victory with a dominant performance despite facing a tough defense. Perfect.
Bétis: Ádan | Bruno, Prezzella, Westermann, Montoya | Petros, N'Diaye | Cejudo, Joaquin (Musonda), Ceballos (Portillo) | Castro (van Wolfswinkel)
Barcelona: Bravo (Ter Stegen) | Alves (Roberto), Piqué, Mascherano, Alba | Busquets, Rakitic (Arda), Iniesta | Messi, Suárez, Neymar
Goals: Rakitic (50'), Suárez (81')
from Barca Blaugranes - All Posts http://ift.tt/1O4bbyx
0 التعليقات:
إرسال تعليق