With the right side, Jordi Alba started to close the middle with a beautiful free kick. Only the last Barça signing remained against Pacheco, but he saw Frenkie more focused, also just because he returned late from another frustrated move, and he gave him the ball to score in an empty net.
So it avoided the Barça the shame of a tie in Vitoria against an Alavés tied to the relegation zone, appearing with two defeats on tow and losing two titles in one week. But that priceless loot was about to be lost again in additional time. He gave the last corner to Alavés, the first for the Blue and Whites. And yet they finished it.. Edgar managed a square meter to set up alone in the area, full of people. Ter Stegen stopped him and the referee ended Barça’s anxiety, a team with little football and little trade and which began to cling to the results as the only alibi in the speech.
Alavés handed over the initiative to a Barça who is not afraid of the little football he has.
No danger in the attack
Against a competitor they thought was similar to Athletic, Barça showed different nuances to increase their performance. Insufficient to generate optimism, let alone enthusiasm. The team enjoyed less pressure than those that the Lions exerted and that gave them control of the game.
With the ball, Barça reassured, but it did not sharpen his fangs in attack. It’s not a problem to relinquish possession to this unreliable team, so blunt in the attacking game, absolutely flat, and Alavés, assuming their inferiority, put everything on a counter-attack (which put it in had the boots of Pere Pons and in the Joselu’s head)) or a set piece. Whatever they had. Like the corner.
Xavi asked for more daring after the break and the insistence announced the victory.
Xavi kicked out en brazos de Luuk de Jong, the elimination of all the reluctance he felt and for which he blessed the injury of the slender nine to Cádiz. With three goals scored in the last three matches (Mallorca, Granada and Real Madrid), he was immediately returned to the field as soon as the Copa sanction was finalized. Luuk plays because Memphis and Ansu are injured and Dembélé is out. Dest also returned, punished from Munich, so veteran Alves (38 years old) rested after chaining three games.
Starting with a nine of reference invites you to accompany him with two extremes. The same from Bilbao, Ferran and Abde, did play wide open yesterday, nailed to the sideline. Pedri and Frenkie de Jong (the replacement for the suspended Gavi) had more space to build in the inner area.
The first half ended with Pere Pons shooting against Ter Stegen.
Mislead
But they have expanded little, obsessed with looking far to deepen with the three forwards searching one-on-one with their peers, which is one of Xavi’s most stubborn instructions. In the few actions of Barça advantage, the decision-making failed. Before hitting, Ferran was wrong twice: once by not giving Frenkie a ball in a quick advance and another in a loss at the feet of Pere Pons who finished the Catalan interior alone against Ter Stegen before the curtain fell on the first industry.
Ferran failed before hitting the crucial moment, which did not alleviate the restlessness of the Catalans. A signing is expected to take the chestnuts out of the fire, and urgently in Barça’s troubled situation, and the Valencia have not raised the tone of the squad, continuing the lack of unpredictable footballers suggesting something to be missed. of which conventional. The capacity for surprise is zero in a group gripped by uncertainty.
Xavi asked for more daring after the break and the insistence announced the victory.
Audacity called the coach again at half-time, and with the risk the errors increased, but it was necessary to increase the rhythm of the match one step further. Even if it was to shake off the cold. He changed the team’s face by changing the way they attack. The tires, especially the right one, held by Abde after his initial location on the left, were more searched. This was the unpredictable factor that strengthened Barça in the face of general inertia. The departure of the Moroccan stretched the team. Until it is replaced.
An Arreón from Alavés changed the fate of the match, as if the local eleven had driven away their fears by seeing the only competitor they feared disappear with their escapes. Barça changed the system, Xavi desperate when he saw that nothing had an effect. Just the insistence.
matchstick leaf
Alaves: Pacheco (7); Martín (6), Laguardia (5), Lejeune (7), Javi López (4); Escalante (6), Pina (4); Jason (6), Pere Pons (6), Rioja (6); Joselu (6).
Technical: Jose Luis Mendilibar (6).
Changes: De la Fuente (5) van Pons (oorl. 71); Edgar (sc) by Rioja († 90).
Barcelona: Ter Stegen (7); Dest (5), Piqué (6), Araujo (5), Alba (6); Pedri (7), Busquets (6), F. de Jong (7); Ferran (6), L. de Jong (5), Abde (6).
Technical: Xavi Hernandez (6).
Changes: Nico (5) by Abde (m. 71); Jutglà (sk) by L. de Jong (m. 85); Lenglet (sc) by Pedri (d. 90).
goals: 0-1 (m. 87), F. de Jong scored on an empty goal after a loan from Ferran.
Referee: Figueroa Vázquez (4), Andalusian.
cards: Laguardia (m. 91).
Related news
red cards: Mendilibar (m. 91).
Stadium: mendizorroza
Reference-www.elperiodico.com