Spanish La Liga: Espanyol vs Barcelona – First Half Report (Part 2)
Read the first part http://www.senore.com/Spanish-La-Liga-Espanyol-vs-Barcelona-First-Half-Report-Part-1-a48563.
Barcelona were playing a high defensive line and Espanyol were finding it hard to get past the two centre backs who always played the home side’s strikers as offside. Soon it were Barcelona who found themselves in front as Pedro Rodriguez scored the first
goal of the game. However, the game stopped for a while because of a “controversial” decision by the referee.
The Espanyol midfielder Verdu was the one who got nudged by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lionel-Messi-c22296 played a wonderful ball forward for Pedro Rodriguez. The Spanish youngster outran the defensive lines of Espanyol and scored a wonderful goal
with his right foot to put his team in front of an intense derby game.
Even though Barcelona were the ones who found themselves in front, it was the home team who were enjoying more possession. It was quite odd to see the statistics after the first twenty five minutes as Barcelona were seen struggling with the possession of
the ball. It is Josep Guardiola’s side who usually enjoy most of the possession of the ball but this time, the home team simply outplayed them in the centre of the pitch.
The Barcelona derby was simply intense for the fans as a lot of tackles were flying in from both sides. Despite the fact that the home team were involved in most of the tackles, the visitors were the ones who got the first booking of the game. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Sergio-Busquets-c33048
was the one who was involved in an “illegal” tackle with Verdu and got himself booked.
Barcelona scored the second goal of the game right before the half hour mark. Josep Guardiola’s men managed to pull off another extraordinary move. It was like an instrument being played by the Spanish champions – simply perfect football by the table toppers.
Despite the fact that they were being dominated in the midfield, they still did not lose concentration up front.
After a wonderful ball from http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/David-Villa-c10629 towards Pedro Rodriguez, the Spanish youngster found Lionel Messi at the right spot – right outside the 18 yard box. The Argentinean flicked the ball wonderfully towards Xavi Hernandez who crossed it perfectly towards
Daniel Alves from the right flank; however, the Brazilian just couldn’t get the much-required-touch. The deflected ball found Xavi Hernandez again in the same position but this time the Spaniard decided to take his chances on goal and did not miss. A wonderful
goal from the Ballon d’Or finalist helped the Spanish champions double their lead as they were now in the driving seat.
Espanyol weren’t quiet throughout the game either. Luis Garcia was able to flick a ball towards the Argentinean striker Gallejon. The pass was well taken by the Argentinean and a shot was taken on goal which looked to be going inside the goal but a good
save by Victor Valdes saved the day for the Spanish champions, Barcelona.
With the first half ending, it was clearly seen that Josep Guardiola’s men were not dominating the game despite the fact that they were two goals up. They could not pass the ball well in the midfield and they did not have the same free-floating football
that they usually play. However, they were leading the game with two goals and a third was on its way towards the end but David Villa wasted two good chances and the score remained 0-2 in favour of the visitors.
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