Sporting Gijon vs. Barcelona – Spanish La Liga Match Review (Part 2)
The Argentinean star striker, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lionel-Messi-c22296 often fell deep into the midfield to collect the ball away from goal. David Villa played as the other striker for the Spanish Champions.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Adriano-c3773’s deflected goal. The Spanish Champions were not at their personal best against Sporting Gijon but they still managed to take all three points to go top of the Spanish La Liga points-table.
After the goal Barcelona found it hard to get past Sporting Gijon’s defensive walls but they were still dominant and didn’t let Sporting pull one back.
Barcelona won their first La Liga fixture under Josep Guardiola at Gijon. In 2008, the Spanish Champions won the match 6-1 under Guardiola and they tried to play the same way on Sunday as well.
The first real chance of the game fell for http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/David-Villa-c10629. The former Sporting Gijon player tried his luck from the left flank. It was Messi who found Villa right outside the box and the Spanish goal scoring machine rounded off the defender and tried his luck
from the left foot. However, the shot only managed to find the side netting.
Barcelona were dominating in terms of possession. Sporting Gijon tried to play counter attacking football with Barcelona playing only with three defenders.
The Spanish Champions never really looked too vulnerable at the back, with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Javier-Mascherano-c18071 giving out a phenomenal performance. The Catalans were moving the ball quickly and tried to tire their opposition.
Barcelona had most of the ball while Sporting Gijon were left chasing shadows. It was the same Barcelona strategy, keeping and passing the ball to themselves in order to create goal scoring chances.
Barcelona were finding it hard to penetrate through Sporting Gijon’s concentrated defensive lines. However, Xavi Hernandez was the player who helped the visitors take the lead by breaking Sporting’s defensive wall.
The Spanish midfielder got the ball right outside the box. With Barcelona passing the ball around the opposition’s 18 yard box, no one expected Xavi to take a shot on goal. The Spaniard was not closed down by any of Sporting Gijon’s defenders and Xavi Hernandez
took his shot on goal.
The shot was simply brilliant and it struck the goal post. The deflected shot found Adriano making a run inside the box. The Brazilian star wasted no time as he shot from his stronger left foot and found the back of the net.
Replays later showed that the shot had deflected off from a Sporting Gijon defender but the goal stood and Barcelona were leading the game within 12 minutes of the first half.
It wasn’t a convincing goal but Barcelona were still in lead and they passed the ball more often in order to keep their lead intact and to tire their opposition.
The early lead game as a blessing in disguise for the Spanish Champions as they later struggled to find the back of the net. Sporting were far more organized at the back after conceding the first goal.
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