Spanish La Liga: Barcelona vs. Sporting Gijon – Full Time Report (Part 1)
The match was supposed to be a thriller as both the teams stepped inside one of the best Stadiums in the world, the Nou Camp. Barcelona's home ground was full of blaugrana colours as everyone expected the match to be exciting even
though the best player in the world and the little Argentinean magician Lionel Messi was on the sidelines to watch the game because of the injury that he picked in the away tie against the Madrid side, Atletico Madrid.
Lionel Messi was seen on the bench with a plastered foot while the new line-up included Keita and Bojan Krkic in the first 11 as Pedro Rodriguez could not make it to the first team as well. The number 1 goalkeeper for Barcleona,
Victor Valdes took his place between the two poles as he was assisted by Puyol, Gabriel Milito, Dani Alves and Maxwell. Gerard Pique was on the bench as he looked stressed out after the game against Atletico Madrid and the French left back Eric Abidal was
not even on the bench as he was too busy sorting out "problems" at home. Sergio Busquets and Sedou Keita featured in the midfield as the "mastermind" Xavi Hernandez was playing in his favourite centre midfield position to help the team score a few goals with
his fabulous passes. Bojan was used as a replacement for Lionel Messi as he played on the right wing with David Villa in the centre, switching positions with the left winger Andres Iniesta. Basically the formation was 4-4-2 but Iniesta used to make a run from
the left to make the formation 4-3-3, the traditional Barcelona style.
On the other hand, Sporting Gijon played a traditional 4-4-2. They had Pichu Cuellar as their goalkeeper who was assisted by Sastre, Botia, Ivan Hernandez and Jose Angel. The two wingers were Matabuena and Rivera who featured on
the left and the right flanks respectively. Luis Moran was playing the "D to D" role for the team as Lora featured as a central attacking midfielder. The two strikers were Mate Bilic and David Barral as Bilic was the one who played slightly ahead of Barral.
Most of the football fans were watching the game just to check what Barcelona were going to produce without their "best" player Lionel Messi who scores for them in almost every game that they play. With Lionel Messi out for approximately
two weeks, everyone was wondering who was going to replace him on the goal scoring charts.
Barcelona started the game just like the way they always did, they moved the ball around to help the team make some good goal scoring possibilities as Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta were busy passing the ball around to help
the strikers score some goals. In the 5th minute, the Sporting Gijon player Rivera earned himself a yellow card as he deliberately pulled Bojan back. Bojan had a really bad game against Hercules and it was seen that this time the Spanish striker
was enthusiastic to score goals for his club as he was running for the ball and helped the team create a few opportunities.
Right in the 9th minute, Andres Iniesta had an amazing chance to make it 1-0 for the home side as he was totally left open on the right flank and he made a move in but the shot was well blocked by the Sporting Gijon
goalkeeper, Cuellar.
After Barcelona's attacks early on, Sporting Gijon tried to attack; however the strategy failed miserably as the Spanish La Liga Champions capitalized on this "trick" by playing counter attacking football but it was David Villa
who was caught offside time and time again.
The match was very important for the newly signed Spanish striker David Villa as he is a huge fan of the team that he used to play for, Sporting Gijon. He does not like to score against them and every time he has managed to score
against his former club, he has never actually celebrated.
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