Recap of Barcelona's loss against Luis Enrique's former team, Celta Vigo
Barcelona was unable to return to winning ways after the heartbreaking loss in the El Clasico, dropping their second consecutive La Liga game. For the first time since October 1941 Celta Vigo came into the Catalan capital and walked away with the three points, thanks to a cool finish from Joaquín Larrivey.
| Barcelona | Celta Vigo | |
Possession | 66% | 34% |
Total Shots | 19 | 10 |
Shots on Target | 9 | 4 |
Corners | 9 | 5 |
Fouls | 10 | 29 |
Offsides | 2 | 2 |
| Yellow cards | 1 | 2 |
Red cards | 0 | 0 |
Luis Enrique fielded what was a largely expected starting XI. Javier Mascherano and Jeremy Mathieu returned to playing in the heart of the defense while Sergio Busquets, discomfort or no, started at defensive midfielder. Rafinha took his place alongside of Ivan Rakitić in midfield with Andres Iniesta out with a calf injury, while the front trio featured three world class players: Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Neymar.
Barcelona started the match from midfield and didn't give up the ball for what seemed like ages. Celta Vigo began the game with high pressure and a relatively high defensive line, but apart from a couple batted balls Celta did not see the ball for the first three, four minutes which was also the minute when the visitors completed their first pass of the game.
However, despite the domination of the ball, Barcelona couldn't create any chances as the Celta defensive line looked very strong. The first strong rush from Barcelona didn't come until the 8th minute when Suarez's beautiful pass created a chance for Neymar who was denied a shot on goal by former Barcelona B defender, Sergi Gomez.
Neymar continued to be the focal point of Barcelona's attacks as the Brazilian continued to be the most dangerous Blaugrana player in the early going. In the 10th minute Rakitić brilliantly found Neymar with a cross from the left, but the Brazilian wasn't able to get enough power on the ball or direct the ball away from the keeper who was left with an easy collect. Neymar fired another shot on target just three minutes later when he unleashed a drive from 25-yards out, beat the keeper, only to be denied by the crossbar.
Celta, on the other hand, didn't fire their first shot, albeit off target, of the game until about five minutes after Neymar's last shot, when another former Barça B player, Nolito, won a free kick in a good position. Nolito took the free kick himself, but his attempt was high and wide.
Neither team was able to fully establish their game over the next minutes, with both sides misplacing many passes, coupled with a few good defensive plays, most notably by Mascherano. In fact, for a short stretch Celta saw most of the ball, but thanks to some good defending, Bravo was left untested. The Celta front three were always very active and around the 30th minute the three combined to create a good chance for Larrivey, but Jordi Alba was able to make the important block. From the following corner kick Celta again had a good look on goal, this time through Pablo Hernández's header, but Claudio Bravo was well positioned to make the save.
Barcelona were then quickly able reply with a chance of their own, but Sergio Álvarez brilliantly denied Messi with a panther-like save after a pass from Neymar. The two Barcelona players combined again a minute later, with Messi again taking the shot on goal. This time, however, the Argentine was able to get the ball past the goalkeeper only to have it swatted away by a diving Gustavo Cabral who, with the help of the crossbar, kept the game scoreless. Quickly thereafter Messi missed a free header after Suarez's perfect cross.
After that wave of chances for Messi, Barcelona struggled to get through the Celta back-line. The pressure was in full swing for the Catalans, but chances were hard to come by, just like in the stretch between the chances Neymar missed and the chances that Messi missed. Barça's next shot on target didn't come until the 42nd minute when Suarez fired a strong low shot off, but he was denied by Álvarez. In similar fashion Neymar was also unable to beat the Spaniard less than a minute later.
Neymar's missed chance ended up being the last goal scoring opportunity of a half that featured many chances to break the scoreless deadlock. However, mostly due to some fantastic saves by Álvarez, who stopped six shots on target, the game went into the break tied at zero.
Barcelona started the second half where they ended up the first, in Celta's attacking third, pilling on the pressure and creating chances. Just over two minutes after the restart Alba found a hole in the visitors' defense, to perfectly set up Neymar in the middle, but the Brazilian's first-time shot yet again hit the crossbar and bounced out of play. It was the third shot against the crossbar in the game for Barcelona.
And as is so often the case in the game of football, Celta made Barcelona pay for all the missed chances. A deep ball over the midfield made its way into the Barcelona back-line where Alves was good positioned to make the clearance, but Nolito stole the ball away from the Brazilian amid the full-back's lack of urgency. Nolito then brilliantly set up Larrivey who in space made no mistake and beat Bravo to put the visitors into the lead.
Desperately needing two goals to not only climb into a position to win the game, but also retain the first place in the standings, Lucho made two substitutions in the 66th minute. Pedro and Xavi were introduced to the Camp Nou crowd, while Busquets and Rafinha took their spots on the bench.
The offensive pressure by Barcelona was now even greater, but while chances were there for the home side, there was seemingly nobody there who could finish them off. In the 68th minute Pedro, who was playing on the right wing, created a clear-cut scoring chance with a pin-point cross to a wide open Suarez, but the Uruguayan headed the ball right at the goalkeeper.
Barcelona continued to play with just about every player in Celta's half, but now in a "protect mode" Celta gave up less chances. But the visitors remained dangerous on the counter attack, and Nolito had a chance to put the game out of reach, but was denied by Bravo. The rebound, however, fell right to Charles, but the Brazilian headed the ball over the wide open net.
Then came another chance for Barcelona, this time from a free kick from 30-yards out. Messi readied himself and fired a beautiful curling shot on goal, but like so many times before in this game, he too was only able to hit the crossbar. Celta countered that chance with a chance of their own with Charles making the Barcelona defense look silly, but Bravo was there to keep the Catalans in the game.
In the 85th minute Barcelona yet again carved up Celta's back-line, but for the ninth time in the game Álvarez made the diving stop. It was arguably Ávarez's best save of the night who dove to his right to tip away Suarez's perfectly placed shot that would've sneaked just inside the far post.
Barcelona spent the remainder of the game in Celta's half, but with many passes being off the mark, they couldn't create any more chances. The loss dropped Barça from the top place in the La Liga standing, and Lucho will have to get the team quickly back into form or Real Madrid could make a break for it. Barcelona will now look to the Champions League to turn their fortunes around, but a game in Amsterdam is anything but a simple game for a team looking for their identity.
Roll Call:
| Roll Call Info | |
|---|---|
| Total comments | 553 |
| Total commenters | 52 |
| Commenter list | Abdul95, Abohabiba, Anders Thomassen, Andrew Ardila, AraibKarim, Ari.K4, AzBlaug, BarcaLifer, Barcacatalunya, Bostjan Cernensek, Catalan_Blood, ChalkLitIScream, Chatchai Chotiput, CifuentesErick, Dios, Eddie Pundell, El_Illusionista, FCB4Ever, Ghishan, Jonni, KiwiBarca, LaSenyera, MiB75, PG9, Ragnar_Lothbrok, Rajesh1101s, Ricardo Blonde, SheepleBuster, Som-i-Serem, Staralfur, Steven Cordero, TheOnlyPtolemy, Uncharted_Almo, VarkeychanT, VarunGrover91, ViscaViscaBarca, Yuro_Doosh, abdulla0207, ade fox, craig00000, culeforever, defeaning_silence, feeya7, jonathanvazquez10, messism, milesbarca, nolet, pranaydhone, robyn_bird96, swomack, syredeathtrooper, waseem10 |
| Story URLs | |
| # | Commenter | # Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barcacatalunya | 108 |
| 2 | Bostjan Cernensek | 39 |
| 3 | syredeathtrooper | 37 |
| 4 | abdulla0207 | 33 |
| 5 | ade fox | 31 |
| 6 | defeaning_silence | 20 |
| 7 | Staralfur | 18 |
| 8 | VarunGrover91 | 17 |
| 9 | craig00000 | 16 |
| 10 | ViscaViscaBarca | 15 |
| 11 | Uncharted_Almo | 14 |
| 12 | Eddie Pundell | 13 |
| 13 | Abohabiba | 12 |
| 14 | TheOnlyPtolemy | 12 |
| 15 | SheepleBuster | 11 |
| 16 | MiB75 | 11 |
| 17 | Som-i-Serem | 11 |
| 18 | messism | 10 |
| 19 | robyn_bird96 | 10 |
| 20 | BarcaLifer | 10 |
| 21 | Abdul95 | 9 |
| 22 | waseem10 | 8 |
| 23 | feeya7 | 7 |
| 24 | CifuentesErick | 6 |
| 25 | milesbarca | 6 |
| 26 | Anders Thomassen | 6 |
| 27 | KiwiBarca | 6 |
| 28 | FCB4Ever | 6 |
| 29 | El_Illusionista | 5 |
| 30 | Catalan_Blood | 5 |
| 31 | Andrew Ardila | 4 |
| 32 | Rajesh1101s | 4 |
| 33 | LaSenyera | 4 |
| 34 | pranaydhone | 3 |
| 35 | Jonni | 3 |
| 36 | nolet | 3 |
| 37 | culeforever | 2 |
| 38 | VarkeychanT | 2 |
| 39 | Ricardo Blonde | 2 |
| 40 | PG9 | 2 |
| 41 | AzBlaug | 1 |
| 42 | Ari.K4 | 1 |
| 43 | ChalkLitIScream | 1 |
| 44 | Dios | 1 |
| 45 | AraibKarim | 1 |
| 46 | Ghishan | 1 |
| 47 | jonathanvazquez10 | 1 |
| 48 | Ragnar_Lothbrok | 1 |
| 49 | Yuro_Doosh | 1 |
| 50 | Chatchai Chotiput | 1 |
| 51 | swomack | 1 |
| 52 | Steven Cordero | 1 |
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