It may only have been Levante but Barça gave a fine display today, especially in the second half, and ended up winning comfortably by five goals to one. Samuel Eto’o returned to the starting lineup and showed why Barça have missed him so much by bagging a second half hat-trick, while Xavi Hernandez and Leo Messi both capped good performances with goals in the first half.
Frank Rijkaard made four changes to the team that beat Celtic, with Zambrotta, Sylvinho, Xavi and Eto’o in place of Marquez, Abidal, Deco and Henry, which meant that Puyol moved back to central defence. Barça started well and looked to have taken the lead in the eighth minute after Iniesta set up Eto’o but the linesman had flagged for an offside on Iniesta. Then in the 12th minute a great crossfield pass from Ronaldinho found Messi darting into the area and his cross was palmed out by Kujovic towards Eto’o who failed to get in a proper shot.
However, a couple of minutes later Barça took the lead after Eto’o played a neat one-two with Iniesta, two defenders slid in to tackle Eto’o but the ball broke free to Xavi who drove the ball into the net from just inside the area. Soon after Ronaldinho should have made it two after Eto’o pulled the ball back from the right to find him in space at tyhe far post, but Ronnie’s shot was a poor one and flew over the crossbar.
Barça then seemed to relax and little by little Levante started to get back into the game, showing they are not such a bad team as their league position suggests. In the 27th minute Geijo dribbled past Puyol before sending in a low shot that Valdés did brilliantly to get his fingertips to, sending the ball onto the inside of the far post, fortunately for Barça the ball rolled out across the face of the goal. A minute later Levante threatened again but Juanma was given offside as he headed the ball past Valdés.
Barça reacted with shots from Sylvinho and Eto’o but then in the 40th minute Zambrotta gifted Levante a penalty with a stupid handball. Riga made no mistake from 12 yards coolly sending Valdés the wrong way. Just when it seemed that the game was going to become complicated Messi and Xavi combined brilliantly to score Barça’s second. Xavi laid the ball off to Messi who sent a neat ball back into Xavi who back heeled it to Messi who skipped past a challenge before shooting low past Kujovic for the goal of the game. Levante had one more chance on the stroke of half time when Valdés came for a cross but Miguel Angel got there first only to head into the side netting.
The first half had been pretty good but a couple of defensive lapses had let us down. In the second half Barça gave an almost perfect display with Messi dazzling, Toure dominating and Eto’o finishing off all the great work. Eto’o had the first chance of the half when Xavi sent in a neat chip, but the striker’s control let him down allowing Kujovic the chance to come out and claim the ball.
Then in the 56th minute there seemed to be little danger when Messi sent in a great right footed pass to Eto’o who beat the offside trap before dragging the ball around Kujovic and sidefooting into the net. Six minutes later Toure threaded the ball through to Messi who unselfishly squared to Eto’o who had the simple job off tapping the ball home.
Thuram and Bojan came on in place of Milito and Ronaldinho as Barça continued to dominate. Toure had an excellent second half and Messi was looking untouchable, in the 75th minute he again set up Eto’o but this time the shot was poor. Giovani came on for Messi in the 80th minute and the Argentinian went off to great applause. In the dying minutes Eto’o got his third and Barça’s fifth after Bojan crossed from the right.
There were plenty more reasons to be optimistic after today’s performance. The midfield and forwards all played well, Ronaldinho managed to dribble past his marker a couple of times, though he needs to be more ruthless in front of goal. With Eto’o in the team we should never go through such a bad scoring run as we did when he was away. Messi is looking back to his best and followed up his two goals in Glasgow with another today. Xavi had his best game for a while and shows that he responds to being left out of the team, while Toure Yaya was quite superb in the second half. It was also good to see Sylvinho getting forward and combining well with Ronaldinho.
As I write Madrid are still drawing 0-0 in the second half. Could we be down to a three points gap tonight?
Barça: Valdés 6, Zambrotta 5.5, Puyol 6, Milito 6.5 (Thuram m66, 6.5), Sylvinho 6.5; Xavi 8, Toure 8, Iniesta 7.5, Messi 8 (Giovani m80, –), Eto’o 8, Ronaldinho 6.5 (Bojan m73, 7).
Goals: m14 Xavi 1-0; m41 Riga(pen) 1-1; m44 Messi 2-1; m56 Eto’o 3-1; m62 Eto’o 4-1; m87 Eto’o 5-1.
Barça cards: none
Attendance: 71,979
See highlights here
Or try here
24 responses so far ↓
Piotrek // Feb 24, 2008 at 22:35
No .We are down to 2pn.
They are losing 0-1 atm after amusing goal scored by UCHE .
FCB - Canada // Feb 24, 2008 at 22:53
I have found the faith! Hehe… Good game by Barca. Darn you Zambrotta for denying me my 5-0 prediction!
blaugranafan // Feb 24, 2008 at 22:54
Sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hugo Steckelmacher // Feb 24, 2008 at 22:56
Can’t believe Real Madrid lost! Things all look so very different now.
Nic // Feb 24, 2008 at 22:57
Madrid have lost, Madrid have lost!!!
Thank you Getafe, only two points in it now
Nic // Feb 24, 2008 at 23:00
And congratulations to dayib-SM who predicted the score would be 5-1
PHaft // Feb 24, 2008 at 23:06
Barca looking to be back on track —
Madrid lost off a quick restart conunterattack from Getafe after a Madrid goal was disallowed for being offside and the Madrid players were all celebrating.
That was great, and Getafe’s only clear chance in the whole match (and boy did they take advantage).
Only 2 points seperate us now — we have a tough stretch of games coming up though. We need points in every match!
blaugranafan // Feb 24, 2008 at 23:25
It’s kind of nice that Schuster’s old team helped us out too, isn’t it?
Random question for readers: Could someone kindly tell me why the Copa is of relatively little importance to certain Liga followers? Been trying to figure out why the cup seems relatively less important than say…the Carling or FA cups in Prem. Thx.
tonzyj // Feb 25, 2008 at 4:52
i knew real will not be up there for too long anymore as we re going to hit them soon.
Varughese // Feb 25, 2008 at 6:48
The reason is you don’t get to watch it most of the time.
Jay Maniyar // Feb 25, 2008 at 6:50
Madrid lost. Title on definitely.
pep // Feb 25, 2008 at 9:05
It’s only Levante, but still a good performance. Was the Celtic game the turning point of the season?
I think Eto’o has scored now one goal for each game he started this season, the guy is a phenomenon.
I repeat this Madrid can drop points every game. Is there luck really turning after all those years? Still can’t believe it. I’m really happy for Getafe too because (1) in the first round they overclassed Madrid at home but lost when Madrid scored out of what seemed to be an offside goal and (2) two Madrid youth players couldn’t play this game (unless Getafe paid 300 000 euro each to Madrid).
Next games are really important: 4th placed Atletico away and 3rd placed Villareal at home. We have it in our own hands now…
Rafael // Feb 25, 2008 at 9:29
Wow! Lets go Blaugrana!
They did not show the game in my region. How did Ronaldinho play?
Joe // Feb 25, 2008 at 11:23
i wish i watched this one. only 2 points of separation now, go Barca!
Jay // Feb 25, 2008 at 12:43
Ronnie was OK. Started off brilliantly. But you’d have to say that Eto’o and Messi shone much more. But still, he did produce some of those wonder passes of the past…..
Dr.Osmo // Feb 25, 2008 at 13:43
can i see goals ??
Michael Maré // Feb 25, 2008 at 14:55
Life is good, Barca winning with dazzling displays and madrid losing…
Madrid are a club in crisis
Speeka // Feb 25, 2008 at 15:01
You can download the game on Bit torrent here: http://www.mediafire.com/?wxgvggskfl9
If its not ok to post links please remove.
mcv // Feb 25, 2008 at 16:38
It’s Levante, but still I’m really happy how we played. Things still need to be improved here and there if we really want to successfully beat those top teams, but I’m sure that’ll come with time. Madrid finally seem to be losing their luck and Getafe scored a really classy goal IMO.
Next up Atleti and Valencia, 2 wins if you ask me. Valencia is just horrid this season and even though they’re not as horrible as they were, say 2 months ago, they are still far from the old Valencia. And Atleti seem to be really slipping (again) lately and it’s the perfect time to face them IMO. Villa will be tougher, but it’s Camp Nou and we should win. Cos, let’s face it if Real beat them at home, why can’t we?
Nic // Feb 25, 2008 at 17:01
Sorry about the video link, I’ve now added another that you should be able to see.
Speeka - I have no problem with the link, thanks for posting it. Of course I reserve the right to delete anything I don’t like on here.
Blaugranafan, it is true that the Copa doesn’t generate as much excitement, I think it has to do with playing over two legs. No cup competition in the world can really compare to England’s FA Cup. Not sure why really but when I was growing up in England the cup final was just about the only live game you could see on tv apart from internationals. The build up on tv went on for hours and I loved every minute of it. I don’t think even the FA cup is as important nowadays, the big clubs are only really interested in the league and champions league.
Clarity // Feb 25, 2008 at 21:24
Nic, Thanks for this amazing blog dude, Im Wade all the way from sudan….just love reading your match summaries and analysis ..
WHAT A BEAUTFULL DAY THAT WAS!!
merci Uche AGAIN…for making them look like clowns this time around hahahahah i swear watching that madrid goal just shows that the players along with the coach have made amistake wining 7-1 against valladoid
Clarity // Feb 25, 2008 at 21:25
& yeah Eto’o without a shadow of a doubt the greatest Striker of this generation, does any other striker know how to beat offside traps better than he does…
ahhhhh if he only didnt get injured in this last year TWO PICHICHIES
Lonny-Barca // Feb 26, 2008 at 20:59
Yeah of course that Barcelona won this game .
They have the best team in the world and is “SHAME” if Barca will not be Champion really shame and i think that the problem is “COACH” ,Frenk Rijkaard he don’t know what to do with all players and i think it will be good if Rijkaard will go from Barca, that’s my opinion nothing else
And i hope that Barcelona will be returned as an old Barcelona |I HOPE SO|.
Lonny-Barca // Feb 26, 2008 at 21:05
Yeah of course that Barcellona won this game.
They have the best team in the world but i think that the problem why Barca didn’t win important games is “COACH” and is “SHAME” if Barca will not be Champion on this season i hope that Raijkaard will wake up from bed and will send Barcelona in the correct way. |I HOPE SO|.
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