La Liga Week 28 Fixtures - 17-19 March 2017

[Stan 9,081]

 

 

[Stan 9,081]

GOal Las Palmas! Kevin Prince-Boateng breaks the deadlock with only 10 mins on the clock.

[Stan 9,081]

RED Card for Villarreal. Victor Ruiz shown a red card

[Stan 9,081]

Mangala take the lead at Camp Nou. Barcelona 0-1 Valencia.

Earlier both teams had good chances to take the lead. Nearly half hour gone though and Mangala heads in from a corner. 

[Stan 9,081]

SUAREZ! Barcelona equalise with a very basic goal!

Throw in taken. Huge gap in Valencia defence. Suarez runs through and neatly side-foots in. 

[Stan 9,081]

Mangala sent off for a definite pull on Suarez in the box. Sent off and Barca have a clear penalty!

[Stan 9,081]

Incredibly, Valencia equaliser! Carved through Barca defence and on-loan Munir scores against his parent club

[SirBalon 2,607]

That win was vital for Barça but they made hard work out of it and missed countless chances.  I don't know how many attacking moments were produced which should've either ended in a goal or being turned into goalscoring opportunities.

4-2 the final score and it should've been many more...  On another note, Valencia scored way too easily against Barça and none more than the equaliser (2-2) before half-time when they had just gone down to 10 men and had just had a penalty scored against them on what looked to be half-time.  Again it was a midfield issue and unless that's sorted, there won't be no La Liga title or Champions League victory.  Only the Copa del Rey will remain.

[Stan 9,081]

Think the issue was putting Rakitic at right centre-back . Valencia targeted it numerous times and it's clear Barca had their eyes set on HT after the red card & penalty. They went to sleep and not concentrating, keeping focus for the entirety of the game is more worrying for me.

[SirBalon 2,607]

8 minutes ago, StanLCFC said:

keeping focus for the entirety of the game is more worrying for me.

Yeah, that's been an issue all season...  Only one game have they played its entirety at 100% (although in a manner unlike a Barça side) and that was against PSG.  Every other game they've had moments of brilliance and then moments of totally switching off.

[Carnivore Chris 1,867]

21 hours ago, SirBalon said:

That win was vital for Barça but they made hard work out of it and missed countless chances.  I don't know how many attacking moments were produced which should've either ended in a goal or being turned into goalscoring opportunities.

4-2 the final score and it should've been many more...  On another note, Valencia scored way too easily against Barça and none more than the equaliser (2-2) before half-time when they had just gone down to 10 men and had just had a penalty scored against them on what looked to be half-time.  Again it was a midfield issue and unless that's sorted, there won't be no La Liga title or Champions League victory.  Only the Copa del Rey will remain.

The midfield and defence as the defence is still a let down. In fact, no MSN, no title challenge. All 3 were generally the reason why yesterday ended in a win.

 

Good game overall to be honest and it was the real Valencia last night. If Voro has a full summer and continues managing them next season then they will be up there in the top half of the table where they should be I think. With this said, there are no easy games at all in Spain at the moment and we've got to praise the opposition as they are certainly not making it easy. Look at Real, they only just won again by 1 goal themselves this weekend and I can't remember the last time they truly battered a team as it's been made very difficult for them. These sides are simply not scared of the top 2 any more and have worked both out a lot and this is also a factor as to why we we are not seeing as many drubbings at the moment in my opinion.

[Lucas 1,953]

I went to the game last week and for me, Barcelona can't play 3 at the back. It's a shambles. People like Pique and Mascherano look baffled when in it and as for that Umtiti, he looked a right liability. I don't know why they haven't reverted to a back four where most of the players are used to this formation. It is just too easy to hit them on the counter. They were very fortunate the had 10 men to play against for a whole half IMO because the threat of more Valencia goals would have been there.

[SirBalon 2,607]

1 minute ago, Lucas said:

I went to the game last week and for me, Barcelona can't play 3 at the back. It's a shambles. People like Pique and Mascherano look baffled when in it and as for that Umtiti, he looked a right liability. I don't know why they haven't reverted to a back four where most of the players are used to this formation. It is just too easy to hit them on the counter. They were very fortunate the had 10 men to play against for a whole half IMO because the threat of more Valencia goals would have been there.

According to some pundits in Spain, the reason Luis Enrique is using it is because of the amount of goal opportunities the team has created with it which is double of what they have with a 4-4-3.  But in saying this, it's true that at the back they've looked extremely vulnerable with it.