Samuel Eto’o leaves tomorrow to join up with the Cameroon national team for the African Cup of Nations, but he left us with two goals to let us remember what we will be missing. Thierry Henry had probably his best game at Camp Nou setting up two of the second half goals.
Frank Rijkaard gave a rest to Abidal, Milito and Iniesta which meant a start for Gianluca Zambrotta and Lilian Thuram in defence. Rafa Marquez was given the defensive midfield role, and Bojan Krkic started on the right side of the attack. Eto’o and Henry changed positions to great effect throughout the match
The game started evenly with both sides creating chances in the first ten minutes. Samuel Eto’o had two early attempts on goal, first with a speculative shot on five minutes and then two minutes later he forced Murcia keeper Notario to save with his foot after dribbling in from the left. Murcia responded quickly and Valdes had to be alert to stop a shot from De Lucas after a mistake from Marquez.
Barça should have had a clear chance on 13 minutes when Xavi put Henry through on goal but the linesman made the first of three mistakes flagging for an inexistant offside. Barça, however, were struggling to get through the Murcia defence and a few in the crowd showed their frustration by whistling the team after just 20 minutes. I have to ask myself: what sort of fan pays good money to see their team play and then whistles them after 20 minutes when the score is still 0-0.
The whistles turned to cheers after 27 minutes when Marquez sent Zambrotta racing towards the by-line and the Italian’s cross met by Gudjohnsen who capped a fine first half display by sidefooting a volley into the corner of the net. Barça looked a little more comfortable after the goal but still could not create much danger, the next decent chance came in the 42nd minute when Eto’o received a through ball from Xavi, he skipped round the keeper and pulled the ball back towards Puyol but the captain’s effort was blocked.
Murcia had a great chance to equalize early in the second half when Baiano got clean through against Valdés, fortunately for Barça Valdés produced an excellent save diving low to his left. After this Barça took control of the game completely and the exhibition of Henry began. In the 51st minute the Frenchman dribbled in from the left but no-one could get onto his centre across the face of the goal. A minute later Henry once again came in from the left, a great off-the-ball run from Eto’o pulled one defender away, Henry slipped past another, and this time his low cross was met by Bojan with the easiest of finishes.
Chances fell to Xavi, Eto’o, Bojan and Puyol, before Henry combined well with Sylvinho in the 77th minute and crossed for Eto’o to finish clinically. In the 85th minute Eto’o played a superb one-two with Iniesta who had come on for Gudjohnsen, and then crossed to Zambrotta whose shot came back off the crossbar. There was still time for Giovani, who came on for the last eight minutes, to get past his man and centre from the right for Eto’o to prove his goalscoring instincts yet again.
Eto’o went off to an ovation with two minutes remaining to allow Pedrito Rodriguez a first team debut. Unfortunately there was not enough time for him to show what he is capable of. Four-nil was perhaps a little flattering to Barça who showed some similar problems in the first half, but the second half display was worthy of applause and will hopefully lead to two more victories in the coming games at Camp Nou with Sevilla and Racing.
Barça: Valdés 7, Zambrotta 6, Thuram 6, Puyol 6.5, Sylvinho 6.5; Xavi 6.5, Marquez 6.5, Gudjohnsen 7.5 (Iniesta m65, 6.5); Bojan 6 (Giovani m82, 6.5), Eto’o 8 (Pedrito m88, –), Henry 8.
Goals: m27 Gudjohnsen 1-0; m52 Bojan 2-0; m77 Eto’o 3-0; m87 Eto’o 4-0.
Barça Yellows: Henry m48; Zambrotta m61; Eto’o m88
13 responses so far ↓
Rafael // Jan 13, 2008 at 3:05
4pts left, hope madrid drew or lose!!
e10 // Jan 13, 2008 at 9:16
Great performance by the whole team.
But especially Eto’o and Henry. Everything gelled well in this match.
And like i said about Eto’o when he was injured, when he gets back from injury he be straight back into form.
Well Done !!!
liva // Jan 13, 2008 at 10:38
you forgot something, eto’o also got a yellow carte after his jubilating his 2nd goal with fans. So henry,zambrota and eto’o
liva, from chad // Jan 13, 2008 at 11:06
I wonder why I couldn’t see Ronaldinho and Deco in the stands? Are they injured and have to sit in wheel chair?Please who can tell me why? those are things that make the media think they are facking their injuries…Come on man, get your fat ass to Nou Camp and cheer your team mate. That’s what a team do and that’s what King Eto’o did.
Youssef Gazia // Jan 13, 2008 at 13:09
Great Game!!
i will never undertand barceona fans…
Only bad part is whn the fans jeered their own team
Nic // Jan 13, 2008 at 17:34
Liva - I didn’t see the yellow card for Eto’o, but I admit I might have been busy celebrating. However, none of the Spanish press that I have seen have reported it so unless I see some proof to change my mind I’ll stick with what I saw.
liva, from chad // Jan 13, 2008 at 18:01
Nic, you may be right. I also was celebrating but I so a yellow card coming out and henry was complaining with the referee. was it the one to henry? but I thought henry got his at the 48th min as you said, while the one I am talking about came out just after eto’o’s second goal when he went to kiss the girl on the stand.Anyway its not important, the most important thing was that we won the match with class and comfortably. I am getting ready to watch madrid’s match wishing they will drop points. By the way I would like to congratulate you Nic for the great job you are doing. More times barca official’s sites delays with news but yours comes up just on time. for ex: they have not yet said anything about tree falling on ronnie’s hause…keep on the good work, I love you man
Titi186 // Jan 13, 2008 at 22:56
The yellow card aws definately not for Henry because he had already gotten one so he would have been off had that been for him.
Great game from Titi and Eto’o I told you that these two would be the key to Barca challenging for the title. I really want Messi to come back (contray to my last post
) but I wonder if he would be able to interchange positions like Bojan did yesterday which proved to be so effective; it will be an interesting time when they are all back and fit. Remember Barca’s problem all season has been the way teams have been able to stifle such brilliant creative talents such as Messi by putting 6 people to mark him, if he could fit into a interchanging position system alondside Titi and Eto’o like R7 and R10 at Man U, then Barca would be unstoppable especially in CLeague. Hope he is not out too long regardless as w/o Eto’o we need Messi.
As for Ronnie and Deco, yes they should have been in the stands as Eto’o was for months so they should show the same respect to the team.
However I think with Henry, Eto’o and Messi making up the preferred front three, and Bojan and Giovanni waiting in the wings, I beleive that Ronnies time maybe coming at an end. Barca cannt pay someone £140k/pw to sit on the bench for the next 2 years.
Also with Guddy and Iniesta and Xavi able to play just behind the front three, Deco may get fed up with not always starting and may want to leave however I think that maybe with improvements Barca could end up very well keeping both of them.
Hope you had good weekends, Real just won 2-0 I think and that puts a dampner on things, however lets be honest no one expected resistence from lowly Levante.
PHaft // Jan 14, 2008 at 3:24
I also think that Zambrotta finally had a good game on top of the last few uninspired performances. Henry is looking sharper each game, and with Messi coming back I think we’ll be ok despite Eto’o leaving for Africa. Lets hope Ronnie and Deco can get back to their form — I really think Deco, when he’s playing his best, makes Barca’s style of football flow much better.
Real Madrid will slip up for sure — they seem to be escaping lately each match with late goals from Ruud– late goals against Levante!!!!?!?!?! — It will be a long season but I definitely think we can catch them — and the tough part of their schedule is coming soon!
Blaugrana // Jan 14, 2008 at 15:17
Nic, i think zambrotta deserves a 8/10 he was brillant and he clocked up an assist
Merv // Jan 15, 2008 at 5:18
Eto’o did receive a yellow card for going to the stands in celebration for his 2nd goal. I noticed after he was walking back to the pitch that they showed he had been carded on the screen. Thierry, I believe, was walking with the ref as he was booking Eto’o to see if any of the other players were carded as well for following Eto’o to the stands. I guess he was worried since he was one of the many players that did.
Even I didn’t notice the yellow card until the 2nd time I watched the game. Excellent game by all the players.
Nic // Jan 15, 2008 at 15:32
Special thanks to Liva for bringing up the Eto’o card and for the rest of you for insisting. I now have confirmation that Eto’o did receive a yellow. I’ve now updated my statistics page.
I wasn’t the only one who missed it, none of the Spanish sports papers recorded it on Sunday.
liva, from chad // Jan 15, 2008 at 22:07
Nic, I am now happy you saw it, you have not to thank me, you are the one doing the great job and deserve to be congratulated. I love eto’o so much that I see everything surrounding him during a match, and I am also a dead barca fan, here in my country Chad there are very few barca fans the majority are Madrid fans. There is one thing I would like to ask, how can I get to watch copa del rey matches? no tv station shows these matches only la liga, but I would like to watch all barca matches.
Now I am following the match from fcbarcelona.cat (audio), I would be happy if I had the chance to watch my stars on tv but unfortunately its never possibly anyway I will just listen to the commentary and give them my support from here.
I am very happy to see zambrotta back on his position, because he does better than puyol on that position (Right back). puyol is better on the center but its going to be hard for rijkaard because when Yaya toure returns then marquez will have to join milito because the two have establish a very good partnership back there. I wonder who will be on the bench? can our leader(puyol) make way to marquez? Anyway computation is always required for players to give it all and rise their games. ohhh Its the second half, I have to get my earpieces on and follow the match.
I hope we are going to win 1-0
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