Recap of Barcelona's solid win in the Champions League against Ajax
Barcelona ended their two game losing streak with an important win at Amsterdam Arena against Ajax. The match didn't start pretty for the Catalan side, but as the game progressed Barcelona got better and they were rewarded with the three points, with Lionel Messi accounting for all the goals scored.
| Ajax | ||
Possession | 38% | 62% |
Total Shots | 7 | 14 |
Shots on Target | 1 | 8 |
Pass Accuracy | 77% | 87% |
Corners | 1 | 4 |
Fouls | 14 | 6 |
Offsides | 0 | 3 |
Yellow Cards | 4 | 3 |
Red Cards | 1 | 0 |
Luis Enrique surprised very few people with his selection of the starting lineup, but with consecutive defeats experimentation wasn't really an option. As a result Marc Bartra started alongside of Javier Mascherano in the heart of the back-line with the injury to Jeremy Mathieu. And in the absence of Andres Iniesta the starting midfield consisted of Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitić and Xavi.
Barcelona looked dangerous in the early minutes, controlling the ball with ease, and just four minutes in it Neymar slotted the ball into the back of the net. However, the goal was correctly disallowed for offside.
But with Ajax's mentality regarding ball possession being similar to Barcelona's the hosts did their very best to gain control of the ball. And they did a good job at it, with Ajax's midfield being very disruptive to Barcelona's attacking plans.
Most of the action in the opening 15 minutes was limited to the middle third of the pitch as both sides struggled to break through and threaten to score the opening goal of the match. Barcelona were first to break this trend, but Rakitić was unable to send the final pass to the middle where two Barcelona players were left in space. But Ajax countered that with a period of pressure of their own, resulting in the first shot of the game, albeit off target, when Dani Alves' poor clearance allowed Lucas Andersen to take a shot from 20-yards out that whistled just wide of the post.
After that short period of end to end action the two sides started spending most of the time near the midfield again, but Ajax saw much more of the ball and were starting to gain momentum. And around the 26 minute mark Ajax started bombarding the Barcelona defense with chance after chance. The defensive line struggled to hold on, many times making panicky clearances just to get the ball out of danger. When that option failed Marc-Andre ter Stegen was there to make the save.
Somehow Barcelona survived that period, and started looking a bit more dangerous in attack afterwards. In fact, Jordi Alba had a great opportunity to put Barcelona in the lead after he was sent one-on-one with Jasper Cillessen by Messi, but the left back saw his shot excellently saved by the goalkeeper.
In the 35th minute Neymar was brought down about 25-yards from Cillessen's goal. Messi set himself up and sent a beautiful curling shot on target, but the Dutch international made a panther like stop to keep the game scoreless. But the play didn't stop there as the ball made its way back to near the spot where the kick was taken from where Alves sent a high ball to the right side of the penalty area. Bartra and Cillessen both went after it, but Bartra was in a better position and was able to send the ball in front of the goal, right onto the head of Messi who headed on goal, past the defender that was covering the line, to put Barcelona into the lead.
Apart from a strong run by Neymar, which was confidently handled in the box by the defense, neither team created anything noteworthy after Messi's opening goal. After one minute of added time referee Pedro Proença brought the card-filled (three on each side) half to an end.
Ajax kicked off the second half, but similarly to the first half it would be Barcelona who would get the first look on goal. Though this time Neymar ended up hitting the post, but again the play was in the end whistled dead, this time for a foul by the Brazilian. Overall Barcelona started the second half in much better fashion compared to what the Catalan's showed in the firs. The passing was much crisper, the midfield actually started to exist, and suddenly Barça started looking dangerous in attack.
In the 58th minute Messi presented Luis Suarez with arguably his best scoring chance of his short Barcelona career as he sent the Uruguayan all alone on goal. Cillessen came far out to challenge Suarez and it proved to be enough as the Barcelona forward was unable to double Barcelona's lead.
It took nearly 10 minute for either team to create the next scoring opportunity of the game, though this time it was Ajax's turn to hit the frame of the goal. After a poorly cleared corner kick the ball was sent back to the far post where Alves left substitute Arkadiusz Milik with a free header, but the young Pole was denied by the post.
The large amount of yellow cards shown in the first half were bound to have an impact later in the game, and that became a reality when Joël Veltman was shown a second yellow card in the 71st minute, after he brought down Messi. It was not good news for Frank de Boer who now needed to find a way back into the game being a man down.
Lucho didn't make his first substitution of the game until the 75th minute when Pedro replaced the hard-working Neymar, who was left without reward for his performance. But it turned out to be a good substitution as Pedro made immediate impact, supplying a perfect ball into the middle where Messi was left with a simple tap in to tie former Real Madrid legend Raul for the most goals scored in the history of the Champions League.
Soon thereafter Rakitić attempted to join Messi on the scoreboard with a shot from distance, but Cillessen produced another solid save. Immediately after that shot the Croatian midfielder was substituted off and was replaced by Rafinha. Quickly thereafter Lucho completed his final sub, replacing Alves with Adriano Correia.
A man up Barcelona dominated the last minute of the game, with Messi continuing as the fulcrum of Barça's attacks. However, the Argentine was unable to complete the hat-trick that would've see him break Raul's record.
Barcelona will now look to continue their winning ways in the Spanish League where they will take on Almeria at the Juegos Mediterráneos stadium in the last match before the international break.
Roll Call:
| Roll Call Info | |
|---|---|
| Total comments | 629 |
| Total commenters | 62 |
| Commenter list | 0nk0, Abdul95, Anders Thomassen, AraibKarim, Artemis11, Aveblaugrana, AzBlaug, Barca Boy, CifuentesErick, CuleRaj, Daxterflames, DevilWithin, El_Illusionista, FCB.HKHME, FCB4Ever, FCBMessi, FCBblaug, HeeLMuuT_, Imalwaysofftopic, ItjustgotMessi, Jigish, Jonni, KiwiBarca, LuisTeeth, MessiLeftFoot, MiB75, Navz, Ovid Naso, PG9, PatrickJM6, Piquénbauer, PlayerFan, Rajesh1101s, Ruubruub, Som-i-Serem, Steven Cordero, TayoBarca, ThebeautifulGame, ThreePar, Tokjee, Uncharted_Almo, VarkeychanT, Varungrover, ViscaViscaBarca, Waje.y, Yuro_Doosh, abdulla0207, amer.mehicevic.77, casellius, craig00000, defeaning_silence, feeya7, footballfordoze, getreus, injohanveritas, messism, milesbarca, oddsbodiSkins, pogis1991, pranaydhone, sy_rm, syredeathtrooper |
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| # | Commenter | # Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Artemis11 | 90 |
| 2 | Barca Boy | 61 |
| 3 | syredeathtrooper | 50 |
| 4 | Navz | 42 |
| 5 | oddsbodiSkins | 36 |
| 6 | defeaning_silence | 21 |
| 7 | MiB75 | 21 |
| 8 | Abdul95 | 19 |
| 9 | AzBlaug | 18 |
| 10 | FCBblaug | 18 |
| 11 | MessiLeftFoot | 17 |
| 12 | CifuentesErick | 15 |
| 13 | abdulla0207 | 14 |
| 14 | craig00000 | 13 |
| 15 | KiwiBarca | 13 |
| 16 | Imalwaysofftopic | 11 |
| 17 | Anders Thomassen | 11 |
| 18 | Daxterflames | 10 |
| 19 | milesbarca | 10 |
| 20 | El_Illusionista | 10 |
| 21 | FCBMessi | 8 |
| 22 | Som-i-Serem | 8 |
| 23 | FCB4Ever | 7 |
| 24 | feeya7 | 7 |
| 25 | Yuro_Doosh | 7 |
| 26 | Uncharted_Almo | 6 |
| 27 | AraibKarim | 6 |
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| 30 | Varungrover | 5 |
| 31 | footballfordoze | 5 |
| 32 | injohanveritas | 4 |
| 33 | Piquénbauer | 4 |
| 34 | pogis1991 | 4 |
| 35 | sy_rm | 3 |
| 36 | TayoBarca | 3 |
| 37 | messism | 3 |
| 38 | casellius | 3 |
| 39 | Waje.y | 3 |
| 40 | pranaydhone | 3 |
| 41 | ThebeautifulGame | 3 |
| 42 | getreus | 2 |
| 43 | Steven Cordero | 2 |
| 44 | PG9 | 2 |
| 45 | PatrickJM6 | 2 |
| 46 | VarkeychanT | 2 |
| 47 | HeeLMuuT_ | 2 |
| 48 | CuleRaj | 1 |
| 49 | ViscaViscaBarca | 1 |
| 50 | DevilWithin | 1 |
| 51 | ItjustgotMessi | 1 |
| 52 | PlayerFan | 1 |
| 53 | Aveblaugrana | 1 |
| 54 | Jigish | 1 |
| 55 | Jonni | 1 |
| 56 | Ovid Naso | 1 |
| 57 | Tokjee | 1 |
| 58 | 0nk0 | 1 |
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| 60 | ThreePar | 1 |
| 61 | Rajesh1101s | 1 |
| 62 | amer.mehicevic.77 | 1 |
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