Football Special Report: Barcelona – A Perfect Win (Part 1)
The Catalan giants Barcelona have been a little out of touch in their home games during the Spanish La Liga. After losing the first game 2-0 against a newly promoted side Hercules, and then drawing the game against former Barcelona man, Michael Laudrup’s
Mallorca, the fans did not really like how things were turning out for the Spanish Champions. Even though the Blaugrana wearing side did not start off well in their home ground the Nou Camp, they still managed to be very impressive away from home. However,
while playing an important match against Sevilla as they visited Barcelona, it was expected to be a thriller as Barcelona needed to show their fans that they are not “worthless” at home.
Barcelona treated their fans to a fantastic performance at their home ground, the Nou Camp as they hit past five goals to Sevilla with two braces coming from Lionel Messi and the newly signed David Villa. As the last goal was scored by the former Sevilla
player Daniel Alves, who did not really celebrate to show respect to the team that helped him become the player he is.
This was the best performance by Barcelona so far as they simply handed out a footballing “masterpiece” to Sevilla, who actually found themselves a goal down after only four minutes. Lionel Messi made no mistake from the penalty area as the ball deflected
back from Sevilla’s defender Konko. Later in the second half, it was Konko again who got his team into trouble as he got a red card after his second illegal tackle which came on Pedro Rodriguez. On the other hand, the Los Blancos Real Madrid also won the game
against Hercules and the current Spanish Champions stayed at second position right behind their Spanish rivals Real Madrid as the week ended.
The start of the game just couldn’t be better for the Catalan giants who simply started to attack right from the beginning. It was the midfield maestro Xavi Hernandez who took a shot on goal right after 55 seconds and the Spaniard nearly missed. Later, during
the fourth minute, it was the Argentinean magician who made no mistake in putting the team a goal ahead within four minutes. Barcelona then started to play their possession keeping football and even though Sevilla tried to get back into the game, the Catalan
giants simply didn’t let them take the ball much and the visitors were mostly chasing shadows. Barcelona were playing at their best as they would simply jump back at the ball whenever they lost possession and never lost their focus during the game.
Xavi Hernandez was missed during the last two games that the Catalan giants played and the coach Pep Guardiola tried different formations as his favourite midfielder was absent. He even tried playing three centre backs with five players in the mid and Lionel
Messi and David Villa up front. That match was won as well as Barcelona won the game with a two goal margin against the bottom of the table side, Real Zaragoza; who drew the game to Valencia during the weekend.
With Xavi Hernandez coming back after the two games that he missed because of the injury, the Spaniard dominated the midfield with his well controlled passing. David Villa, who was being criticized for not scoring goals while playing for Barcelona, scored
a beautiful goal during the 24th minute as Lionel Messi made a wonderful opportunity for the Spaniard. The shot left the goalkeeper with no chance as it curled past him and gave Barcelona a two goal lead over their opponents.
Sevilla were pretty much done for as they could see how the Catalan giants were dominating the game and they had simply no chance against Guardiola’s men. The situation worsened when their defender Konko picked up a second yellow card during the 45th
minute, as he was forced to bring down the Spanish youngster Pedro Rodriguez, who net mugged the defender and was later brought down.
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