If ever my prediction was going to finally come true, this was a great time for it to happen!
Pep Guardiola is the kind of guy that, when you back him into a corner, just responds with twice as much as before. Our poor patch last season had a similar outcome, eventually resulting in the 6-2 thrashing at the burn a cow. Tonight was no exception to the rule.
The scary thing is , there was only a handful of times tonight when Barça looked like they were playing at 100%, at times only 70% was enough to overwhelm the opposition.
One player who definitely operated at 100% throughout was Seydou Keita. The Malian produced his best game ever in a Barça shirt, and has a hat trick and an assist to show for it. He was dominant everywhere: in the air, in defense, in possession, crossing and shooting. Undoubtedly the man of that match, he was a good player for us last season, this season however, he has developed into an excellent player. With 5 goals already he's equal to Christiano Ronaldo in the Pichichi, and I imagine he has started less games than the Madrid man too. Regardless, Keita has made a strong case for being one of the first names on the team sheet this season. Pehaps he feels that he needs to put in twice as much work, to make up from his imminent departure for the African Cup of Nations in a couple of months, who knows?
Zlatan also produced another stellar performance tonight, going further to prove both his and Pep's critics wrong. His incredible opening goal from a free kick had been coming for a while (he's been edging closer with them in weeks past), and his second showed the kind of skill he's capable of producing with the ball. Indeed, his backheel to round the Zaragoza defender was also a sight to behold. At his very best, he's reminiscent of Ronaldinho at the top of his game for us in years gone by. Let's hope his form continues too, and he can go on to prove his critics wrong in the Champions League also. Fittingly, Zlatan got a deserved standing ovation upon his substitution, by now having won over the hearts of the Camp Nou faithful.
As if it couldn't get any better, Messi finally got on the score sheet again. He was denied several times early on, and it seemed like it just wasn't going to be his night again. However, in the latter stages of the game, he latched onto a brilliant pass and produced a wonderfully deft flick into the back of the net. This will do wonders for his recently waning confidence, just what the Dr ordered.
Finally, Maxwell produced his first excellent performance for Barça. He looked solid and tenacious at the back, and extremely threatening going forward. Much to my delight, he often looked entirely like a left sided Daniel Alves. Maxwell seems to have finally clicked which is only good for our defensive line, making sure places at the back stay competitive.
It's perhaps unkind to look at any negatives from the game, but there's a huge elephant in the room which needs addressed. I criticised Marquez last time round ,and I'm afraid I'll have to do it again. Chyrgrynsky looked shaky and slow throughout the game, so Pep's decision to replace Pique, who was generally solid, with Rafa, was a bizarre one. Perhaps Pep thought that, with the game more or less wrapped up, it was the right time to give both Rafa and Dima some crucial playing time, having both just returned from injury. In any case, both were horribly caught for pace, and entirely at fault for the goal. If not for their defensive errors, Barça would have finally claimed a much desired clean sheet (and we know how Pep loves those). They also completely ruined the offside trap on a couple of occasions, one of which resulted in the goal. If we've learned one valuable lesson from tonight, it's that Rafa and Dima cannot play together at the heart of defense, it's simply too risky and against a better team we would be severely punished.
Moving on, the Copa Del Rey is finally back in the midweek. It looks like Toure and Abidal, both of whom were missing tonight, will feature. Expect to see Henry get some playing time if he's fit too, hopefully alongside Bojan. Keita should definitely get the chance to continue on his run of good form alongside Maxwell. I'll update around Tuesday with my thoughts on the midweek game of course.
Until then, Visca el Barça i visca Catalunya!
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