Barça saw off a weak Betis team with a much improved performance. Ronaldinho silenced his critics with a fine game which he capped with two free kick goals in the second half. Thierry Henry who has also faced criticism, opened the scoring in the first half and also hit the post.
Barça’s three Frenchmen, Henry, Eric Abidal and Lilian Thuram all returned to the team, as did Gianluca Zambrotta. The players they replaced were Marquez, Milito, Sylvinho and Bojan. The defenders hardly had any work in the game as Betis threatened very little and didn’t have a shot on target until the 77th minute.
Barça dominated from the beginning and Messi, Henry and Ronaldinho caused the Betis defence endless problems. In the eleventh minute Ronnie passed to Iniesta who chested the ball back and the Brazilian shot into the side netting. On 16 minutes Henry met a cross from Xavi but his downward header was saved by Ricardo. A few minutes later Xavi found Henry again and this time the Frenchman unleashed a right foot shot that hit the woodwork.
It was only a question of time before a goal. And it came in the 33rd minute, Toure found Iniesta who jinked past his marker before sending a great through ball to Henry who got away from the defence to poke the ball under the advancing goalie. Half time arrived with the score at 1-0 but Barça should really have scored more to demonstrate their dominance. Victor Valdés was a spectator and had only one cross to deal with in 45 minutes.
The one-way traffic continued in the second half. In the 53rd minute Ronaldinho won a free kick 25 yards out to the right of the goal. He took the free kick himself curling the ball into the top corner of the near post. Betis more or less gave up after this, not that they had done anything before.
The rest of the game was a show from Ronaldinho and Messi. The Argentinian looked back to his best and had some wonderful runs. In the 59th minute he exchanged passes with Ronaldinho, cut into the area but his shot was from an angle and Ricardo saved. Then on 70 minutes Messi set off again on a run that was similar to the one he made to score his ‘Maradona’ goal against Getafe. This time however his finish was not as good just going wide of the far post.
Not to be outdone Ronnie tried a spectacular overhead kick which went over. Barça got the third in injury time after another run from Messi ended with a foul just outside the box. Ronnie stepped up again, this time the free kick was to the left of the D. Ronnie’s shot went through a gaping hole in the wall and went in off the post.
Barça now move to within a point of Madrid at the top of the table, after seeing Madrid’s game yesterday I don’t think we have too much to fear. This was an encouraging performance from Barça, especially from the front three who all had good games. Let’s hope they can keep it up for the visit of Rangers on Wednesday.
Barça: Valdés 6, Zambrotta 6 (Marquez m75, 6), Thuram 6, Puyol 6.5, Abidal 6.5, Xavi 6.5 (Gudjohnsen m83, –), Toure 7, Iniesta 7, Messi 8, Henry 7.5 (Bojan m79, 6), Ronaldinho 8.
Click here to see the video from Marca
10 responses so far ↓
Siim // Nov 4, 2007 at 22:21
Great game and a good result but I feel a bit bad that neither Ronaldinho nor Henry used many chances they had. Yes, they scored but they both had at least two other where they didn’t. Nevertheless I believe in them and hope they will have even better performances ahead.
Speeka // Nov 5, 2007 at 1:33
Good match, with Iniesta the outstanding player for Barca, in the 1st half. But 2nd half was Roni’s, with Messi showing some brilliant skill, even though he had bit’s kicked out of him, especially by Juande & Babic.
Zambrotta was unusually off his game. Apart from that no complaints.Nice seeing Ronaldinho, make the talking heads gesture, after his 2nd goal. Shoving it down the throat of those with no faith.
blaugranafan // Nov 5, 2007 at 2:15
Nic–surely Puyol deserves better than a 6.5! The man was everywhere. Plus, who knew a central defender could cross so beautifully??
Interesting bit of trivia that I was mulling over after time expired. If Ronnie had made one of his other free kicks, would he have been the first player in European soccer history (or anywhere, for that matter) to score a hat-trick off of free kicks? Great to see him play so well!
FCB - Canada // Nov 5, 2007 at 3:46
Highly entertaining game. Good performance from everyone. There wasn’t a whole lot to complain about but it would still be nice to see Barca bury much of their missed opportunities which this game did have many of. Puyol was great, it was good to see him tell his teammates to hurry it up with his hand gesture.
blaugranafan actually Ronnie could have had 4 from free kicks.
The one right after Messi was fouled hard was stopped by the goalie. I think it had a chance of going in if it had been the other corner. You know he wanted that one cause he was mad after the foul on Messi.
Lets hope they can build on this and turn in a good show vs. Rangers.
Nick // Nov 5, 2007 at 10:51
Great stuff. At times it felt as if Ronnie and Messi were playing a game between each other to try and outdo the other as they mesmerized the Betico defence.
blaugranafan, I find that difficult to believe what you say about a hat-trick off of free kicks. Are you sure? What’s your source?
e10 // Nov 5, 2007 at 13:27
Ronaldinho was absolutely brilliant against Betis and hopefully he can carry that form into the Rangers game.
If he can it will be a certain win for Barca.
And after the Betis game i think that Ronaldinho is back into form and will start impressing again.
Did any of you see the celebration after his second goal?
He was telling all the critics to keep talking and he isn’t going anywhere.
FCB
Miki Copela // Nov 5, 2007 at 22:55
I tould you so that Ronni will be soon beck in his good deys.I just new it a player like him can have to meny bed games.I hope hi will keep with the good game in the next matchs to.Anywey all Barcelona players were excellent bravo for them and if they play like this there is no theam that could bet them.BRAVOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
blaugranafan // Nov 6, 2007 at 1:17
Hi Nick: I wasn’t making any claims in that statement. I was just asking a rhetorical question. Personally, I have no idea about the number of hat-tricks in top flight football that have been scored only off of free kicks, but I’d sure be curious to know the number. Such an event may certainly have happened in the past; then again, given the difficulty of hat-tricks in the first place and the added difficulty of scoring off of free kicks, there may not have been an occurrence. I know Riquelme has come close in the past as well.
Nic // Nov 6, 2007 at 1:54
On the subject of the hat-trick of free kicks I just found that Sinisa Mihajlovic did it for Lazio against Sampdoria in 1998. I even found a (not very good) video link
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/mihajlovic-lazio-5-sampdoria-2-sva-tri-gola/2582605293
Nick // Nov 6, 2007 at 7:22
Sorry about that blaugranafan,
I clearly can’t read. Bad habit of mine of reading diagonally and jumping to conclusions!
Cheers
Nick
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