Football Update: Barcelona Win against Levante in La Liga
The La Liga resumed after a break in December as the Champions Barcelona hosted Levante at Camp Nou. Before going into the break, Levante were humiliated by Real Madrid by a margin of 8-0. Therefore, it seemed as if Barcelona would have an easy way against
their opponents, but in the end, it was a hard fought victory for the Catalans. Pedro scored a brace to give his team the victory, while http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Christian-c9045 Stuani pulled one back towards the end.
Pep Guardiola, the manager of Barcelona, had to make a lot of tough decisions in team selection. Lionel Messi was granted a request to prolong his holidays and despite being in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Spain-c3011, he was unable to make it in the match. Also, Barcelona has lost Carlos
Puyol due to an injury and he was joined by the other centre-half, the suspended http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Gerard-c14664 Pique, on the sidelines.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Javier-Mascherano-c18071 was
also included in the starting line-up while http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lionel-Messi-c22296.
Statistically speaking the match turned out to be a one-sided affair once again. Barcelona had almost 80% possession of the game, which means that the opposition saw very little of the ball. The hosts had 10 shots on target out of the 22 shots in the game,
while the visitors had only 4 shots with 2 on the target. Also, Levante could only manage a single corner in the whole game in comparison to Barcelona’s 12 corner kicks. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Manuel-c23383, Levante’s goalkeeper, was busier than his counterpart Victor Valdes, as the later
was called to make one save during the whole game. In short, with such statistics of the game the score-line does not reflect the dominating game that Barcelona had.
Lionel Messi was definitely being missed by the Catalans. There were quite a few chances as Bojan missed two in the first half. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/David-Villa-c10629 and Pedro had moved to the wings while Bojan was left to provide the finishing, which he failed to do. Andres Iniesta
was the closest to score in the first half but he was kept out by the goalkeeper. The half ended with on a score of 0-0, which was a poor start of New Year by the Catalans.
The first goal came just after two minutes of second half. The Brazilian fullback, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Dani-Alves-c9869, had a few dummies in the box and had chances to shoot as well. At one point, it looked as if Alves is unable to make up his mind but he played the final ball to
Pedro who made no mistake in putting it behind the net after a slight deflection from the defender.
The second goal came in the 59th minute for the Catalans and it again involved both Alves and Pedro. Alves played a great ball to the youngster who finished with a clinical right footed curling shot. Pedro came close to a hat-trick as well, but
he was denied by the woodwork. In the meantime, Levante pulled one back through Stuani but it was already too late and Barcelona won the match by 2-1.
During the match, some of the problems emerged for Barcelona which would require Guardiola’s immediate attention in the coming weeks. Javier Mascherano was a big disappointment and he had to be replaced by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Thiago-c34888 Alcantara. Also, in the absence of Messi,
Barcelona were less threatening in their attack as Bojan and Villa were failing to penetrate through the defence. Nevertheless, Barcelona has gained a five point advantage over their rivals Real Madrid, who would play their match on Monday.
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