Spanish La Liga: Hercules tame Spanish giants Barcelona to home
The current reigning Spanish Champions, Barcelona were forced to suffer a humiliating two goals to nil loss at home at the hands of Hercules. Nelson Valdes, was the player who made lighting strike twice at the Nou Camp as he left the La Liga shocked and feeling rather confused after the match was over.
Going into the game, Barcelona had not lost a home game since May 2009, they managed their last defeat at the hands of Osasuna in a very frustrating match that ended with a score line of one goal to nil. Paraguayan striker, Valdez scored in both halves to give Hercules one of their biggest wins of the season. In quite simple words it was a 'Herculean' performance by the team that ended in a killing of the Spanish giants.
Pep Guardiola's Barcelona looked rather lifeless and helpless at times, the team had only suffered one defeat last season, which came at the hands of Athletico Madrid. However the team looked like a shadow of its former self despite having players like the Argentinean wizard, Lionel Messi and World Cup winners, David Villa, Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez amongst their ranks.
Hercules have a yearly budget of around three hundred and fifty thousand pounds, which is roughly one tenth of Barcelona’s annual budget. The managers decision to leave players like Xavi, Pedro, Sergio Busquets and Carles Puyol came back to haunt him as his plan backfired rather dramatically.
Despite gaining the upper hand in the match on the twenty seventh minute the home fans were forced to being silenced by Valdez, who got the ball over the head of Victor Valdez in the twenty seventh minute, giving the away team the lead.
Barcelona are known for making some of the best come backs, which is why when Guardiola threw in Xavi and Pedro to try and create more chances, everyone felt that Barcelona were going to get back into the game. However that was not quite the case this time around. Hercules doubled their lead near the hour mark. Tiago Gomes whipped in a delightful ball which was met once again by the on rushing Valdez, who swept the ball into the net with a first time shot.
However it was not all one sided. Messi, Villa, Pedro and even defender Gerard Pique went close to scoring, however it was the Hercules keeper Juan Calatayid who showed some phenomenal shot stopping and kept the Barcelona side at bay throughout the match.
The match ended with the score line reading two goals to nil in favor of the visiting team and resulted in the rest of Europe taking note. Most people now feel that Barcelona's run at the top of the food chain has come to an end and with the top spot now looking achievable almost every team is going to try to take it.
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