Match Report: Barcelona 4-2 Mallorca

Everyone’s sure to be happy with last night’s result – we know we are. The boys came out to win and they did it, attacking well from the very beginning, with Pedro being surprisingly awesome. Pep was resting several starters for this match, with Xavi, Messi, Dani, Iniesta, Bojan, and Pinto on the bench. And what a genius move too – Messi and Xavi in particular have been exhausted, with Dani and Iniesta also looking like they could use some rest; they got to relax on the side while the subs got some game time, and gave a great performance, only for Leo, Xavi and Andres to come on again in the second half with fresh legs and further dominate the match.

The first goal came when Zlatan was leading an attack and the defenders closed in tight around him, so he kind of swerved around and backhealed the ball off to the right. Pedro dashed after it, caught up and tucked it into the net, then turned around and went on a victory run in the opposite direction as Busi and the rest joined with him to celebrate. Barca had an early lead and you could tell right from that moment, we were going to continue scoring and this was going to be a great match.

Then what do you know - the opposition scored. It was off a shot after a corner that our defense failed to cover, and the even scoreline had us a bit worried. The players got uneasy after that as well and the surefire attacking they had opened up with fell back; until Keita woke up to his surroundings and said, “What are we doing? This is Barca, it’s about time we scored another goal,” and flicked the ball over Mallorca’s defenders and over to the waiting Pedro.

What followed was simply crazy. Pedro shoots, his ball is knocked back by the keeper, over to Henry who shoots again, the shot is met by the keeper again, bounds back to Busquets, who meets it with yet another shot, yet another time blocked by the keeper only to go back to Pedro. Pedro gives it a second go and this time hits home, scoring his and Barca’s second.

It’s really awesome how our players all closed in around the goal with each man ready to shoot when the ball came his way. Props to that keeper for having the reflexes to go at it again and again, but the boys were relentless and managed to beat him in the end.

And we couldn’t be any happier with Pedro. At first, we had some misgivings that with him on instead of Messi, the wings would be unbalanced what with Henry starting on the left for the first time since he got injured. But Pedro was more than up to it, and after that second goal, we were feeling like he’ll definitely get a hattrick. He probably would have too if he hadn’t subbed off.

Not long after that second goal came the third. Barca was up for a freekick and Pedro asked if he could take it, and at this point we’re thinking, well why not? This match has been all about him from the get go. So little Pedro steps up, lofts the ball beautifully up into the air and onto the head of Busquets, who directs it beautifully towards Henry for the Frenchman to header it into the goal, scoring his first goal since last season.

The second half saw Messi come on for Pedro followed by Xavi for Busquets, and coming on with fresh legs, their impact was visible. With Leo to partner up with, Ibra’s game picked up after he was looking rather off in the first half – he blew a couple of great chances because he lost the ball to the opposition when he should have passed it, and we still can’t understand what he was trying to do with that freekick – it was as if he was trying to shoot the ball at the moon or something. Dude, the goal don’t go half that high.

All in all, the boys did pretty great last night. A bit of slacking off towards the end led to a goal for Mallorca, but not before Leo tucked in a neat penalty after Ibra got tackled in the area, moving off a pass from an awesome Messi run. The score ended with 4-2 for Barca, a satisfying result after a great performance from our boys.

As a final note, just a few coif-related remarks: Pique’s hair is growing in beautifully, so let’s hope he doesn’t shave it off again. Titi has a freshly shaved head, and we don’t like. The hair was looking cute on him. Zlatan’s hair is getting a bit longer and starting to curl a bit at the ends over that headband – it’s hot but lose the headband. We’ve never tolerated them on players (think Messi) and Zla is no exception, he’d look much better with his hair down around his face.