Almeria vs. Barcelona – Half Time Report - Part 1
The Catalan giants were in action again as most of the players came back from the international break that they had to attend during the midweek. Most of Barcelona’s players were in action as the Spanish team took on the Portuguese side
and the World Champions faced a humiliating 4-0 defeat against the Portuguese team who were simply on top of their game while playing under their captain Cristiano Ronaldo. Eric Abidal was in action as well as he was busy playing for the French team who were
playing against Fabio Capello’s England.
The French side won the game 2-1 and showed that their elimination from the FIFA World Cup 2010 was all because of the internal issues that the team was facing. The Argentinean maestro Lionel Messi was also in action against the Brazilian
side which also featured the Barcelona full back Daniel Alves. Both the players performed extraordinarily and it was Lionel Messi who eventually found the net just a minute before the game was about to end and the Argentinean side won the game.
Considering the tiredness level of every player, the Barcelona boss Josep “Pep” Guardiola decided to play a different line up and not his best men. It was Victor Valdes who stood guard between the two poles but the centre backs were a
little different. Gerard Pique was rested not only because of the stress that he had during the Spanish team’s fixture during the midweek but also because he had a chance of getting a yellow card which would disallow him to perform against Real Madrid in the
“El Classico” which is going to take place next week in the Nou Camp.
With Carles Puyol being the captain of the team and also being the centre back for his side it was the young Andreu Fontas who took Gerard Pique’s position at the back. On the left it was the Brazilian and the former Inter Milan full back
Maxwell while on the right it was the Daniel Alves. Guardiola decided to play the newly signed Liverpool holding midfielder Javier Mascherano rather than Sergio Busquets who is the first choice. Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta did feature in the team but
it was basically so that the team can take an early advantage and score a few goals and later the coach can take the midfield maestro Xavi Hernandez off the pitch.
Up front the line up did not change except Iniesta, who featured in the left midfield role and it was David Villa who played on the left flank as Lionel Messi featured as a centre forward. Pedro Rodriguez was the one who featured as a
right winger but all the three strikers kept on changing their positions up front to change the cause of the game.
On the other hand, Almeria played their best eleven. Juanma Lillo was looking for his first home win as the Spanish champions visited Almeria. As Diego Alves took his position between the two poles it was Michel, Carlos Garcia, Santiago
Acaslete and Joze Ortiz who were there to help him at the back. Coron and Fabian Andres Vargas were the ones who featured in the midfield while M’Bami and Crusat featured on the flanks. Up front it was Pablo Daniel Piatti and Henok Goitom to change the cause
of the game by scoring goals.
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