Match Report: Barcelona 2-0 Leonesa

Sure we were playing against a third division side last night, but did anyone really think that we'd tear it up like we did against Zaragoza? The way we see it, 2-0 is a great achievement for a lineup of mostly substitutes and B-teamers. Because without those six starters who were rested, there goes most of the defensive strength, the midfield dominance and the attacking creativity. You can't expect the subs to be as flowing and beautiful as the full team, with them it's more a matter of keeping things together.

And you could feel it in the way they were playing - with caution. They were being careful, too careful, focusing more on keeping the ball from the opposition or at least keeping them from scoring, than they were on actually scoring themselves. They attacked as much as they could, but they didn't put much into the attack. It was a lot of slow movement that led to losing the ball and losing chances, at which the boys just shrugged and moved on... there wasn't any hunger for goals like the team showed against Zaragoza.

Yet the kids managed to find the net twice, which is pretty good. Well, guess we should say that Pedro is the one who found the net... he was mega hot last night, played with more liveliness than most everyone else and really stood out. Pedro has been getting his share of playing time in this season's games, but when he's alongside the likes of Leo and Zlatan, he's out of the spotlight and not as involved as those others are. It's a different story when he's playing with a lineup of subs like last night; he plays a bigger part and just... shines.

The first goal came when Bojan tried to skip past a couple of defenders and ended up getting tripped, but still managed to flick the ball over for Pedro to finish it off beautifully and put Barca ahead nearing the half. It was Jeffren who then set up the second goal for Pedro to score his and Barca's second, giving us a comfortble win that will have us at ease when we head into the second leg on Camp Nou.

Jeff did well to set up the goal, but overall his performance wasn't as tight as it could have been. His position didn't help. We were also expecting more from Bojan, and the B-team boys have yet to adapt fully to the first team playing level. Busi was in one of his better moods; Marquez is improving, on the way to getting back into top form after his injury; and we were happy with Max's performance and also Chygrynskiy's. Yaya was his usual awesome self and Keita continues to rock out; while Pinto proved to worth his minutes. All in all, an acceptable match. We're happy with this and we're having a good laugh at Real Madrid, so no worries.