Copa del Rey: http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Athletic-Club-c38535 vs. Barcelona – Second Half Report (Part 2)
It was the Frenchman Eric Abidal, who out of all the people found the back of the net for the Spanish Champions. With Lionel Messi, Pedro Rodriguez and David Villa all failing to penetrate through Bilbao’s defensive walls, the
Frenchman showed his own tricks that he had up his sleeve.
Barcelona had kept the ball for two minutes straight and Xavi Hernandez was the one who drilled the ball on towards http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lionel-Messi-c22296. Only the Argentinean maestro could have controlled that pass and he did. The Barcelona number 10
made a wonderful turn towards the goal, but went out of options and passed it on towards Eric Abidal, who planted the ball into the net with only a single touch.
With a goal coming for Barcelona, Josep Guardiola made sure that he saved his important player and also defended the one goal advantage. Next minute, the captain of the night Xavi Hernandez was replaced for http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Carles-Puyol-c8331 who took
the captain’s armband from him and took his position as centre back. With Xavi Hernandez coming off, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Gerard-c14664 Pique joined each other at the back and Eric Abidal remained on the
left while Daniel remained on the right.
The Spanish Champions were in total control of the game after scoring an away goal. They had room to breathe because the home team needed two goals to qualify for the next round while the Spanish Champions had to defend a single
goal that came from Eric Abidal. While defending the goal, Jose http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Pinto-c30032 was involved in a booking because of wasting time during the 80th minute.
Barcelona were defending dangerously and it was Eric Abidal who lost the ball during the 84th minute. There was only one man who was imposing a threat up front for Bilbao and it was their main striker http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Fernando-Llorente-c13671.
Llorente did eventually score a goal during the 85th minute. The ball was inch perfect from Adrien Goni, who found Carlos Gurpegui on the right flank and he crossed it for Llorente who slid the ball home with a single touch.
With a goal coming from the home team, the game was back on as Barcelona still had an away goal advantage. The Spanish Champions needed to defend well in order to win on goal aggregate. However, it was time for the newly signed
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/David-Villa-c10629 up front and joined the team on the left wing.
There were three minutes of added time during which the La Blaugrana tried to find gaps between Bilbao’s defence as they were all playing high up to find the back of the net. However, the home team could not really take advantage
of the “raised-up” spirits after the equalizing goal. Now, Barcelona go through on goal aggregate as they managed to score a goal while being away from home.
It was simply a fabulous game as Bilbao totally pushed the Spanish Champions to the wire. However, thanks to Eric Abidal’s away goal, Barcelona are through to the next round of the Spanish Cup.
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