A crazy night at Son Moix, and a valuable point for Barça
Barcelona remain unbeaten on the season but saw their five-game winning streak in La Liga come to an end after a chaotic 2-2 draw away to Mallorca at Son Moix on Tuesday night. Barça played very poorly and created a lot of their own problems in the first half, and despite a better performance in the final period the Catalans couldn’t get all three points against a Mallorca side that worked very hard to earn their share of the spoils.
FIRST HALF
Barça made a positive start to the game, looking to move the ball quickly and aggressively playing passes of different lengths to try and catch the Mallorca defense off guard. But before they could even begin applying real pressure, they found themselves behind with a self-inflicted wound: a terrible pass from Marc-André ter Stegen in his own area led to a scramble and the ball eventually fell to striker Vedat Muriqi all alone in the six-yard box, and Mallorca were gifted the opening goal less than 10 minutes into the contest.
Barça gave themselves the brutal task of trying to find spaces inside an already tight Mallorca defense that now had a lead to protect, with the hosts now even more focused on causing as much trouble as possible on the counter if they could frustrate the visitors.
And for most of the half they succeeded: despite having a lot of possession Barça struggled to create any meaningful opportunities and resorted to a few desperate and aimless crosses which played into Mallorca’s hands, and it felt like one of those nights where nothing would go the Blaugrana’s way.
But towards the end of the period, two signs of life: the first came from an amazing solo run by Gavi who then found Ferran Torres one-on-one with the keeper, but Predrag Rajkovic made a very good save to deny the Barça forward; the second resulted in a huge equalizer just before halftime as Raphinha chased down the ball after a tackle on João Cancelo and fired a gorgeous low shot into the bottom corner to finally break down the home team’s defense and bring Barça back in the game.
The goal woke up Barça who finally started to play good attacking football and create some major chances, and Raphinha missed a huge one-on-one before João Félix had a surefire goal brilliantly denied by Rajkovic. The two missed chances cost Barça dearly in the dying seconds as Mallorca somehow found a second goal when Muriqi won the initial header after a long ball from the back and Abdón Prats got to it before Ronald Araujo to find the back of the net and put the home team in front again.
At halftime Mallorca were ahead thanks to two goals created mostly by Barça’s poor defending, and the Blaugrana had a lot of work to do to find a way back in the second half.
SECOND HALF
The scenario for the start of the second half was pretty clear: Barça would have all of the ball and send a lot of bodies forward looking for a quick equalizer, and Mallorca would try and expoit every opportunity to counter-attack. The Blaugrana had a strong start and almost scored an amazing goal just 10 minutes in when João Félix fired a rocket from outside the box, but his shot hit the post.
Robert Lewandowski came off the bench shortly after to try and add more scoring punch to the visitors, and Xavi Hernández trusted two youngsters to change the game as Fermín López and Lamine Yamal came on along with a change in formation as Barça looked for a way back.
Yamal almost made an instant impact when he went down in the box after an attempted tackle by José Copete and the referee pointed to the spot, but after a VAR review the penalty decision was correctly reversed.
Barça had 20 minutes plus stoppage time to find a way to rescue points on the road, and while they did a solid job moving the ball in midfield and getting into dangerous positions they were missing the final ball and always wasted the key pass or cross to unlock the Mallorca backline.
But with 15 minutes to go the Blaugrana finally found a breakthrough: an excellent passing move down the right ended with an assist by Raphinha, a great dummy by Lewandowski and a perfect finish from Fermín, who scored his first goal for the club and gave Barça a real chance to find a late winner.
Mallorca seemed content with a point and worked very hard to not allow a real chance in the dying minutes, with Barça having all of the ball but not creating a true game-winning opportunity despite seven minutes of stoppage time.
The final whistle came to end a wild night at Son Moix, and Barça couldn’t perform another late miracle after yet another disappointing performance. But a point at Mallorca is still valuable, and Barça played well enough in the second half to have a better result. If they stop shooting themselves in the foot, Barça will be just fine going forward.
Mallorca: Rajkovic; González (Van Der Heyden 85’), Valjent, Nastastic, Copete, Maffeo (Costa 35’); Sánchez (Darder 62’), Samu, Rodríguez (Morlanes 85’); Muriqi, Prats (Larin 62’)
Goals: Muriqi (8’), Prats (45’+3)
Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Cancelo, Araujo, Iñigo (Kounde 78’), Balde; Gündogan, Romeu (Fermín 64’), Gavi; Raphinha, Ferran (Lewandowski 58’), Félix (Yamal 64’)
Goals: Raphinha (41’), Fermín (75’)
from Barca Blaugranes - All Posts https://ift.tt/cyISH4p
