Barcelona - Recreativo "Match Review"

The match was obviously between two teams who had different goals, Barcelona willing to score early to catch the match as soon as possible, Recreativo players were just kept focusing in keeping their goal empty.

First half was completely dominated by Barcelona. We could rarely see Recreativo having the ball. The main problem, that however, remained unsolved for Barca was in the Box area. With too many defenders it was hard for Henry to make any run. Messi hoped with presonal effort to open the score but he didn't get it right. While XAVI was moving forward in some occasions, he was also one of the reasons of Barcelona domination tonight. Yaya Toure could keep the balance between the lines, he was able to delay Recartivo attacks during the match. Barcelona players with too small spaces was forced to end the first half with no goals.

In the second half Messi made great run but his ball was just abit far from the right post. Barcelona was not able to use any of the corner kicks untill Milito after 64 minutes scored his first goal from corner kick was taken by Xavi. From here the match took another curve. The goal was just enough to free Barcelona players and we could see Henry moving better with more spaces. After Bojan replaced Gudjohnsen, Iniesta moved to his normal position where he could find more spaces. Three minutes after the first goal Henry received long ball from Xavi delivering it to Bojan who controled it nicely and put it in the goal making it 2-0 for the host. Barcelona after that took off the pressure and it was clear that they gaind the 3 points. In the last 10 minutes Messi won a penalty and he was able to score the 8th goal this season that he deserved, Before the final whistle Barcelona had some chances to make the score bigger but 3-0 was the final result.

From my point of view Barcelona's problem tonight was “moving without the ball”, this what made it easier for Recreativo to cut the balls especially in the first half. This also happens when Barca plays away, like Frank said "he wants more effort from the players".

Pushing Bojan was Good option for Frank, the player wants to fight for a place and he moved nicely all the time, he still has to work much more but tonight he really got to show good performance. Barca fan were happy to see him scorring at Nou Camp.

The defense was stable for Barca tonight, Puyol, Milito and Marguez had no problem in stopping Recreativo from scoring. Abidal was standing well with the defense line, but he still has to improve when he moves to the front line, same thing with Zambrotta, especially when they play against team like Recreativo.