Recap of Barcelona's surprisingly low victory over APOEL Nicosia
Barcelona continued their run of not losing the opening Group Stage match of the Champions League that started in 1997 with a win against APOEL Nicosia. In a match that didn't necessarily please the 63 thousand spectators at the Camp Nou, Barça largely dominated the game, but the only goal that was scored came midway through the first half when Gerard Pique headed home Lionel Messi's free kick.
Barcelona | APOEL Nicosia | |
Possession | 72% | 28% |
Total Shots | 17 | 4 |
Shots on Target | 6 | 1 |
Pass Accuracy | 91% | 71% |
Corners | 8 | 4 |
Fouls | 14 | 12 |
Offsides | 2 | 2 |
Yellow Cards | 0 | 2 |
Red Cards | 0 | 0 |
It was widely expected that Luis Enrique was going to rotate the starting XI, but it still came as a surprise when it became known that only two players that started against Athletic Bilbao on Saturday, Messi and Munir El Haddadi, were in the starting lineup again. The starting XI included seven players, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Marc Bartra, Adriano Correia, Sergi Samper, Xavi, Sergi Roberto and Neymar, that made their first start of the season. Samper, actually, was making his first team debut.
The surprises didn't stop there, though, as players like Sergio Busquets, Javier Mascherano and Jordi Alba, etc. didn't even make the bench. With Martin Montoya also left watching the game from the stands, Douglas Pereira was named into his first 18-man match squad.
APOEL started the game the way one would generally expect Barcelona, with quick passes and with the majority of the possession. The Cypriot side also created an early half-chance, after Pique was beaten on the Barcelona right side by Efstathios Aloneftis, but the header by Tomás De Vincenti in the middle was off target.
Barcelona then slowly started to assert their domination and started to threaten around the 10 minute mark through two free kicks. The first one, from the right side, ended in a blocked shot in the middle, while the second, which was in a very good position for Messi, resulted in a strong save from the APOEL shot-stopper, Urko Pardo, who is a former Barcelona farmhand.
With Barça starting to dominate the ball, APOEL reverted to a very deep 4-4-2 formation, forcing Barcelona to work with very little space. Lionel Messi was constantly covered by numerous players, but somehow the Argentine was still able to make runs all over the pitch. Neymar was also very lively, always trying to get open for the pass, but he wasn't as deadly as he was against Athletic Bilbao, as evidenced by his miss 20 minutes from kickoff.
The Barcelona backline wasn't tested often after the early pressure from APOEL, but when the visitors did move forward they often looked dangerous. Feeling a little left out ter Stegen even made a sweeper-keeper type play, clearing the ball with a header outside of the penalty box.
In the 27th minute Alves was fouled heavily near the right sideline to win Barcelona a free kick. Messi curled it into the danger area where Pique was positioned perfectly to head the ball to the bottom corner of Pardo's goal to put Barcelona in the lead. The goal capped off what a generally a very strong showing by Pique.
Barcelona continued to be the better of the two teams on the pitch, but with APOEL retaining their strong defensive shape scoring opportunities were difficult to come by. In the 38th minute though Messi was sent on a quick break, then he calmly waited for support. Munir was best positioned to receive his pass and fire on goal, but Pardo was also in the perfect position to stop the newest Spanish international's head-high shot.
APOEL were able to hang on to the slimmest of deficits until the halftime whistle despite Messi's and Neymar's best efforts to secure Barcelona a higher lead going into halftime.
Neither team made any substitutions during halftime and with APOEL continuing to play with a deep line it was expected that the second half would look very similar to the first. And that was indeed the case as Barcelona wasted no time getting close to APOEL's penalty box. But getting closer to the goal was again a problem. The Catalans patiently passed the ball around the 10-man box located at the top of the area, looking for an opening, but the APOEL defense was positionally very sound.
Even though Barcelona were dominating the game, APOEL did occasionally launch an attack. In the 58th minute the visitors actually came very close to tying the game up through de Vincenti, but Bartra was in a perfect position to make the much needed block.
Quickly after that attempt Lucho made his first substitution of the game, replacing Xavi with Andres Iniesta. Five minutes after their first chance of the half APOEL threatened again, but this time Alves was in the right position to clear the ball out for a corner kick. The resulting corner was calmly punched out by ter Stegen.
After the scare Barcelona again went on the offensive, and with APOEL opening up a little bit there was suddenly some more space for Barcelona to exploit. Barça appeared to have taken advantage of that in the 67th minute, when Munir buried Neymar's cross-goal header, but the goal was correctly disallowed for offside. That ended up being Munir's last play of the game as he was subbed off immediately after for Sandro Ramirez.
It was about that time that Barcelona took the foot of the gas. They still played attacking football and controlled the ball for much of the time, but there was a clear lack of urgency. Barcelona very nearly paid for that in the 78th minute when APOEL launched a quick four on three counter, but in the end nobody from the Cypriot side wanted to take the responsibility for the shot.
Over the last stage of the game Barcelona turned up the heat once again, a couple times coming very close to doubling the lead. In the very last seconds of regulation Neymar saw his shot saved by the keeper. The rebound fell to Messi, but his diving attempt was blocked by the last defender. The last scoring chance, however, went to APOEL as Gustavo Manduca tried his luck from range, but was denied by a panther-like stop by ter Stegen.
It might not have been the best performance from Barcelona, but considering the number of changes in the starting XI I'm not going to complain. La Liga action returns on Sunday with Barça travelling to Valencia to take on Levante.
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