UEFA Champions League: Arsenal vs Barcelona player ratings-Part 4
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Sergio-Busquets-c33048
Largely anonymous on the night against Arsenal at the Emirates stadium, Busquets struggled to deal with Jack Wilshere and Cesc Fabregas. The English youngster and the FIFA 2010 World Cup winner, both gave Sergio a tough time to start off with. However, as
the game progressed so did Busquets’ influence. He started to take control of the defensive midfield area shortly after Alexandre Song’s booking. It can be said that on a night where Barcelona controlled about 61 percent of the possession, Busquets could have
used the ball more creatively but the Spanish midfielder lacked sufficient vision to do so. Rating: 7/10
Andres Iniesta
Iniesta was majestic in the first half as he dissected the Arsenal back four time and again with his sublimely timed through balls, but he faded away somewhat in the second half as Arsenal’s young guns showed more and more hunger without the ball at their
feet. Nonetheless, despite his ineffectiveness in the second half, Iniesta was still the master distributor in the match. His passing display throughout the encounter was flawless to say the least. Rating: 7.5/10
Xavi Hernandez
When Arsenal broke forward and tested Valdez inside the first ten minutes of the match at the Emirates stadium, everyone thought that the Gunners would go on and dominate the match, but with Xavi on the pitch for Barcelona that task is almost impossible.
When his team-mates lacked composure on the ball, Xavi took the game by the scruff of the neck in the first half and started to bring the tempo down to Barcelona’s pace. The Catalan midfielder used Daniel Alves’s runs down the right hand side to great effect
as the Brazilian was Xavi’s outside option time and again. Amidst pressure from Alexandre Song and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jack-Wilshere-c17463, Xavi displayed his true class. Rating: 8.5/10
Pedro Rodriguez
The weakest link of Barcelona’s front line was exposed at the Emirates stadium as Pedro was perhaps the most disappointing player of the match. The Spanish striker was caught out in possession and was too ambitious with most of his runs, which meant that
he was almost always off-side when the ball was played to him. Not only that, the striker failed to track back to help http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Maxwell-c25051 when the likes of Walcott and Eboue doubled up on the Brazilian full back. Additionally, near the end of the match, Pedro looked
tired and perhaps it would’ve been better for Pep Guardiola’s team if he had been substituted instead of Andres Iniesta. Rating: 6/10
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/David-Villa-c10629
Barcelona’s best player on the night, Villa timed his runs to perfection in the Catalan side’s offensive surges and had the composure to put away one of the clear cut opportunities that fell to him in the first half. Following his first goal, Villa continuously
evaded the Arsenal off-side trap but this was spotted by Arsene Wenger in the second half as Arsenal shifted to a much deeper defensive line. This change meant that Villa was now deprived of the space that was available to run into, in behind the Arsenal defence.
Nonetheless, the Spanish striker did get Barcelona’s solitary away goal on the night, which could turn out to be the difference when both sides lock horns at the Nou Camp in March. Rating: 8.5/10
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lionel-Messi-c22296
FIFA’s World Player of the year was clearly not at his best against Arsenal. His movement was intelligible but his finishing lacked the characteristic finesse that the Argentinean forward has become famous for. Within the first 45 minutes, Messi missed two
clear cut scoring chances; opportunities that would have put the tie past Arsenal’s grasp before the half time whistle. In the second half, Lionel missed another sitter as it became evident that it was just not going to be his night at the Emirates stadium.
In the end, Arsenal successfully dealt with Messi’s explosive pace as his bag of tricks was kept in check throughout the match. Rating: 8/10
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