Champions League – Barcelona vs. Panathinaikos 3-1
The match started with Barcelona taking control of the game at their home ground, Nou Camp. The Greek side was trying to defend the goal as Barca were the ones who were passing the ball around to put a goal on their side as they were taking the home ground and crowd advantage.
Barcelona were playing their first team while the newly signed Liverpool player, Javier Mascherano did not feature as a first team player. However, it was Xavi Hernandezand Sergio Busquets who played in the midfield with David Villa and Andres Iniesta up front to assist the right winger, Lionel Messi. It was Puyol and an “injured” Gerard Pique who were seen in the centre defensive role while Abidal and Dani Alves featured as left back and right back, respectively.
The Greek side did play Luis Garcia on their side; the former Barcelona player who went on to join Liverpool and then joined the Greek side afterwards. They also had Boumsong and Kante on their side while Gilberto Silva was the player who joined them in the midfield. The Greek defender, Katsouranis was also a part of the team with Govou and Cisse joining the team up front to help them score goals.
The Spanish side enjoyed most of the possession of the ball as they kept on holding to it throughout the first 15 minutes and soon it was David Villa who got an open chance in front of the goal but the Greek defence was good enough to cut the Spaniard out. With that chance missed, Barcelona did not simply give up and kept on making a move towards the goal and kept on building up with their attack.
Lionel Mess was well marked throughout the first half as he barely got a chance during the first 10 – 15 minutes but later it was Barcelona who were blown away with a shocker as the Greek side slipped a goal for themselves. A goal from the new French signing, Govou after a fabulous pass from Cisse was enough to put the Greeks ahead at the Nou Camp as they shocked the Spaniards sitting in the stadium.
Just after the attack, Barcelona started to build up again and soon a wonderful ball from Xavi was enough to put the teams on level terms as the Argentinean magician Lionel Messi did justice to all of it and scored a goal by chipping the ball over the goalkeeper.
The ball was well kept by Barcelona and they enjoyed 75% of the possession throughout and soon in the 33rd minute the Spanish side won a corner which was taken absolutely inch perfect by the Spanish mastermind, Xavi Hernandez and it was David Villa who was left unmarked as he scored a fabulous goal from his stronger right foot.
With a goal ahead, the whole team started to combine perfectly and started to sink into the game and Barcelona just showed the world why they were known as the “Best team in the world.” Soon, in the 42nd minute, a 3 on 1 opportunity was given to Lionel Messi by Xavi but he only managed to find the cross bar as the ball turned away.
However, the half was far from over. In the 45th minute, a genius one-touch move from Xavi, Dani Alves and Lionel Messi was enough to give them 2 goals lead as Lionel Messi found the last touch right in front of the goal and managed to add another goal to his name.
Now it was Barcelona 2 goals ahead with the score line 3-1 as they managed to score thrice at the Nou Camp even though the Greeks were being a threat on the counter attacks. Even though there was so much drama in the first half, Barcelona are definitely going to try to take advantage of the home ground and they will definitely score more.
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