UEFA Champions League – Barcelona vs. Rubin Kazan – Half Time Report and Analysis (Part 1)
The Catalan Giants were to face the Russian Champions Rubin Kazan in a game that was supposed to be a thriller until Josep Guardiola changed a few things round. The Spanish coach clearly stated before the game that he was not serious for the last group stage
fixture and even if he loses the last match, his side will still be at the top of the table. Guardiola also clearly mentioned that he was going to play the youth team players in the game against Rubin Kazan as he wants to rest players like Xavi Hernandez,
Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique; however, he mentioned that he was going to give the line-up of the first team right before the start of the game.
The Russian Champions were to face a “weak” Barcelona side and they were ready to take this opportunity to repeat history by defeating the Catalan Giants on their home ground- the Nou Camp. Last year, it was the Kazan side that managed to defeat the Catalan
Giants in an away fixture to the Nou Camp as they pulled off a “miracle” after defeating Josep Guardiola’s men in their fortress. Now, with Barcelona playing a weaker team, the Russian Champions were to take advantage of it in order to win the three points
that “might” help them reach the next stage of the European Championship but only in case that the Danish Champions FC Copenhagen do not defeat the Greek Champions Panathinaikos.
As said before, the Spanish coach Guardiola played an experimental team with Pinto guarding the goal and he was helped by Adriano, Gerard Pique, Fontas and Maxwell at the back. Guardiola decided to play a traditional 4-4-3-2 with Sergio Busquets and Javier
Mascherano playing as holding midfielders along with the young Thiago Alacantara at the centre of the pitch and playing in an attacking midfield role. It was the last goal scorer of the Real Madrid clash Jeffren who was playing up front with Bojan Krkic as
they were the two strikers to change the cause of the game.
On the other hand, Rubin Kazan played their best side to beat Barcelona to repeat the last year’s scenario. They had to take these 3 points from the Spaniards to get that “hope” to qualify into the next stage but that would happen in case the Danish Champions
FC Copenhagen suffer from a loss against the weak Greek side FC Panathinaikos.
The Russian Champions were playing Sergey Ryzhikov as their goalkeeper who was aided by Alexander Orekhov, Oleg Kuzmin, Cristian Ansaldi and Cesar Navas at the back. Carlos Eduardo and Rafal Murawksi played in the midfield and were helped by Cristian Noboa
and Sergey Kornilenko on the flanks. Obafemi Martins, the former Newcastle striker was played up front with Gokdeniz Karadeniz in a 4-4-2 formation. The Russians were trying to capitalize on the flanks as neither Eric Abidal nor Daniel Alves were featured
during the game and the Catalan Giants were simply playing a team that could be easily penetrated.
To be continued in Part 2...
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