Spanish La Liga: Athletic Bilbao vs. Barcelona – Full Time Report (Part 2)
Barcelona kept on combining well from the centre to the forward line and another beautiful ball was given by Dani Alves to Andres Iniesta who was right in front of the goal during the 64th minute. Iniesta only managed
to find the post as he chose power over technique.
Keita tried on goal soon after 3 minutes but it wasn't a shot worth a goal and another opportunity was simply thrown away by Barcelona. However, Barcelona kept on trying on goals and David Villa was the one who took the next shot
from the left foot but it was well saved by the goal keeper again.
Barcelona just kept on coming for more goals as they were at a man's advantage and they wanted to score more goals but it looked as if luck was not on their side and it was David Villa and Andres Iniesta who managed to find the
pole twice in the game.
Ander Itturaspe was the player who replaced the best player for Bilbao, Llorente. On the other hand, Barcelona were still combining well and it was Xavi Hernandez who found Dani Alves alone on the right. Alves tried to shoot the
ball in the goal from his weaker left foot and the Brazilian player could not really find the target.
With 20 minutes remaining in full time, Andres Iniesta passed the ball onto Maxwell who came on during the second half and the Brazilian player delivered an inch perfect cross to Pedro but he didn't manage to score another goal.
So, another chance was thrown away by the Blaugrana players.
Throughout the first half there was one man who was on the target list for the home team and he was the only player who was seen falling after sliding tackles from different players. That player was Barcelona's mastermind, Xavi
Hernandez. He was fouled 15 times till the 72nd minute of the game and it wasn't a surprise because he was playing the key role for the Catalan giants.
It was the 73rd minute that proved to be amazing for the same man when a ball from Maxwell was delivered to Xavi Hernandez. The "most fouled" player of the match managed to hit a defender and the ball was deflected into
the goal and it was sure that Barcelona were winning the game now and they were to lead Real Madrid in terms of points.
Pedro Rodriguez had a great opportunity in the 78th minute when Seydou Keita's long ball found Pedro standing alone in the penalty area. Even though his first touch was perfect, his second wasn't very much satisfactory
and the ball only managed to find the goal keeper's safe hands.
Gerard Pique was fouled by Jon Aurtenetxe Borde and received a yellow card. Meanwhile, Bojan was the one who came on for Xavi Hernandez while the young Thiago came on for Andres Iniesta during the 82nd minute of the
game.
The night wasn't very "lucky" for the goal scoring machine David Villa as he was only seen being frustrated throughout the match. The number 7 did not manage to find the net even once even though he took lots of shots on goal.
However, the match wasn't over for Villa till the 83rd minute. However, an amazing moment came for him during the 85th minute as he got the ball inside the box and he kept on trying on goal even though he was brought down thrice.
During the 89th minute David Villa was sent off and many didn't even know what went wrong but later it was seen during the replay that David Villa actually punched the defender who was trying to tackle him. It wasn't
very odd because he was having a frustrating night and earned himself a red after losing many chances.
The best chance for Athletic Bilbao came in during the 89th minute and the home team managed to score a goal. Even though Victor Valdes managed to make a wonderful save towards his left but Martinez still managed to
score a goal from his foot once the ball was crossed back to him inside the penalty area.
It was seen that the opposition was taking control of Barcelona once they were a man down as well and now both the teams were 10 men each side. However, it was Barcelona that managed to score the third goal to put the game to bed.
It was Sergio Busquets' first goal ever for Barcelona. He never scored for Barcelona before and the dynamic defensive midfielder managed to find the net after a classy finish from right inside the 18 yard box.
The match was simply intense for Barcelona during the dying moments but they still managed to win it 3-1 and got the 3 points that would put them a single point ahead of their local rivals, Real Madrid.
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