Unable to add for the first time this season three consecutive victories in LaLiga Santander, Barcelona returned to offer its most fragile version and he left two points against Valencia at the Camp Nou (2-2).
This crystal Barça can be hurt with very little football. And on top of that this Saturday he met an inspired rival who made half a dozen clear scoring chances and could even win the game.
Well tucked back and with the lines very close, the Valencian team went out to wait, exploiting the speed of Guedes to look for their options against it. Although, in his approach, Javi Gracia sure did not imagine that he would have so many to win.
Guedes beat Araujo as soon as he started, but shot wide, and the Portuguese again tried it without aim a few minutes later.
Meanwhile, the Catalans tried to mature the game from possession, a sterile exercise that was not enough for disturb the goal defended by Jaume Domènech.
The one that did spread each attack was the ‘che’ team. Between Araujo and Ter Stegen they took a clear to Gayà, Carlos Soler forced the German goalkeeper to fly towards his left squad to send the ball to a corner, shortly after, and Soler himself bounced the corner kick that Diakhaby, free of mark, would head for the 0-1.
The match reached half an hour and the goal emboldened the local team that, instead of retracting their lines further, they went to look for their rival higher up, leaving spaces that Barça had not found until then.
A counterattack led by Pedri ended with a forced shot by Griezmann -the first of the Catalans between the three suits-, but it was again Valencia who was closer to making the second in a header from Maxi Gómez that Ter Stegen took miraculously.
But when the first half was dying, a slight contact from Gayà in a Griezmann boarding school ended in a penalty. Hernández Hernández initially expelled the Valencian defender, but when he went to see the play in the VAR, he rectified and ended up showing him a yellow card. However, he did not change his opinion on the existence of the maximum penalty.
The one in charge of launching it was Messi, but Jaume Domènech guessed the intention. However, the rejection went to Jordi Alba whose center, after bounce off the visiting defense, Messi himself ended up heading to goal. The Argentine star thus equaled Pelé’s 643 goals with the same club.
Koeman changed Sergio Busquets and brought De Jong into the break. Barça needed to take control of the game, but it was again Valencia who rounded the goal at the beginning of the restart. But Cheryshev, alone before Ter Stegen, spoiled Guedes’ gift.
The Barça team, however, did not forgive in the next play and Araujo finished off a dead ball in the area with half scissors for the 2-1.
The game was approaching game time and it was still without an owner. Jaume Domènech brought out Braithwaite and Racic’s shot on the line did not find the goal of Ter Stegen in a free kick from the front.
until Maxi Gomez achieved the equalizer again after getting ahead of Mingueza and finish off, in the position of ‘9’, an assist from Gayà’s left.
Mingueza, Coutinho and Messi put the visiting goalkeeper to the test in search of the third, and Barça ended up playing with only three behind in their desire not to stop their climb in LaLiga. But this team not only has problems to defend, but also to effectiveness. It seems that the season is going to make this Barça long.
– Datasheet:
2 – Barcelona: Ter Stegen, Dest, Araújo, Mingueza, Jordi Alba; Sergio Busquets (De Jong, min.46), Pedri (Pjanic, min.85), Coutinho (Lenglet, min.79); Griezmann (Trincao, min.73), Messi and Braithwaite.
2 – Valencia: Jaume Domènech; Wass, Gabriel Paulista, Diakhaby, Gayá; Musah (Álex Blanco, min.43), Carlos Soler, Racic, Guedes (Manu Vallejo, min.87); Cheryshev (Kang-In Lee, min.90) and Maxi Gómez.
Goals: 0-1: Diakhaby, min. 9. 1-1: Messi (min.45 + 4). 2-1: Araujo (min. 52). 2-2: Maxi Gómez, min. 69.
Referee: Hernández Hernández (Canary Committee). He showed a yellow card to Griezmann (min.13) Gayà (min.45), Álex Blanco (min.45 + 6), Mingueza (min.56) and Jordi Alba (min.90 + 1).
Incidents: Match of the fourteenth day of LaLiga Santander played at the Camp Nou behind closed doors.
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