Thursday, March 5, 2009

Match Report: Barcelona 1-1 Real Mallorca

Barca still hasn't managed to come off with a win for the fifth match in a row now, but things did look a bit better for this one.

Iniesta is looking great following his injury, and did a good job in leading the attack line where Bojan and Hleb just weren't as hot.
Behind the frontal three, Sergio did manage to go through a match without getting booked for once, despite his poor form, and what with Keita barely doing anything all match long (again), our pillar of strength Yaya Toure was holding up the midfield on his own.

Tall Pique seems to prefer Copa matches to Liga ones, as he always seems to play better in them. He was simply great last night, and made some great tackles, all in all contribuitng largely to the defense. Speaking of which, Barca's defense was a little weak on the wings last night, with Dani and Caceras both notably off form, Caceras also drawing a red card along the way and leaving Barca with ten men, as well as giving away a penalty which was thankfully saved by Pinto.

Ah, we've come to Pinto now! What can we say? He was simply incredible. Undoubtedly man of the match for us, Pinto was just on fire, especially for that penalty! And what with Vic's poor performance lately, Pinto will surely be getting much recognition for this, and we see him starting more matches in the future.
Mallorca were the first ones to score, but Messi soon saved the day for us. So what's new? He came on for Bojan and heated things up, and soon scored the equalizer with a goal that was beautiful, as his always are.
Xavi and Rafa also got some minutes, and while poor exhausted Xavi didn't do much, Rafa helped to strengthen the defnse after Martin was sent off. No need to mention how hot he was looking, as always, either.
We were hoping for a good performance from Bojan for this match, since he's barely playing as it is, but alas, this just wasn't his night. We blame the Econ exam.
Anyway, it's off to the final now! Barca is set to face Athletic Bilbao, who surprisingly gave Sevilla a 3-0 thrashing last night. But that doesn't upset us, as we know Barca will be able to win this one, and claim the first of our trophies for this season.
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