Five topics from Barcelona’s draw with Celta

There is no doubt that Saturday’s result was a big disappointment for Barcelona, ​​but one bright spot was that Luis Suarez was back online for the first time since he returned from an injury.

He scored his first goal after a brilliant free kick from Lionel Messi. While everyone expected the captain to shoot, he simply put him on Suarez’s head instead.

The second goal was a deadly end to Uruguay. Messi was the creator again and found Suarez in the box to instinctively turn around and find the far corner.

Riqui Puig’s name in the starting lineup was a welcome sight after his impressive midweek performance, and the youngster did not disappoint again.

Simply put, Barcelona looks a lot better with Puig on the pitch right now. His death was excellent and he was always trying to move forward. Celta also seemed to feel it, given the big challenges he was facing in the second half.

In fact, the youngster has done enough to show that he should keep his place in the team next time against Atletico Madrid.

Quique Setien will have Sergio Busquets back for Wednesday’s duel, but will he be brave enough to start Puig against Diego Simeone’s team?

Barcelona’s draw means the team will drop two points behind Real Madrid if Los Blancos wins against Espanyol on Sunday. This is an Espanyol team that has lost 17 times and conceded 50 goals. You also just fired Aberlardo and named Francisco Rufete the fourth head coach of 2019-20.

Setien admitted after the game that Barcelona have “little room for error” when it comes to keeping their title, but there are still a few difficult games ahead, starting with a visit to an atletico Madrid in shape on Wednesday.

They also have three away games to play, which is bad news considering that they have won only two of their last eight games on the road and still have to go to Villarreal, Real Valladolid and Alaves.

Photo by Octavio Passos / Getty Images

Barcelona’s defense remains part of the problem. Samuel Umtiti came into the backline on Saturday but showed an achievement that did not impress anyone.

The Frenchman got caught for the start and then showed little desire to come back and try to save the situation and sauntered back when Celta leveled through Fyodor Smolov.

It wasn’t the only time Umtiti got out of position due to a poor performance from the central defender, who sees a shadow of the player that used to be so dominant for Barca.

Photo by David S. Bustamante / Soccrates / Getty Images

Barcelona’s tie with Celta means that since March 2015, they have been unable to win at Celta more than Jeremy Mathieu, believe it or not, was the match winner.

Since then, Barcelona have played two draws and have been beaten three times. They also conceded 14 goals in these five games.

Of course Barca was not only poor in Balaidos. The team has now only got 23 points out of 48, which is simply not a title winning form.