La Liga Round 23

FC Barcelona 2-1 CD Leganés

Lineups: 

FC Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Roberto, Umtiti, Mathieu, Digne; Rafinha, Gomes, Rakitić; Messi, Suárez, Neymar. (4-3-3)

CD Leganés: Herrerín; Tito, Siovas, Mantovani, Rico; Alberto, Morán; El Zhar, Gabriel, Szymanowski; Guerrero. (4-2-3-1)

Recovering from a 4-0 loss is difficult for every team, even if that team is called FC Barcelona. Wednesday’s loss against Paris Saint-Germain in Uefa Champions League was a hard punch for everyone related to the team: players, coaching staff, fans, etc. It was a loss that left in evidence the inconsistency of Barcelona throughout this entire season. Going back to Camp Nou to receive CD Leganés was meant to be a transition game to recover from the bad feeling during the week. Or at least that was what a lot of people expected to be.

But that was not the case. Barcelona seemed like they were not playing against Leganés but against themselves. The team keeps having problems to dominate the game in the midfield area. An area that was known as the signature of the game practiced by Barcelona for so many years. With Rafinha, André Gomes and Ivan Rakitić, Barcelona have not been able to find that click to connect every dot of the system. The three midfielders play to afar away from each other. That is something that affects the team because it reduces vision, fluidity and speed on the passing lanes.

Barcelona scored in the third minute of the game. The MSN and Rafinha were the protagonists of that play. Rafinha stole the ball from Alberto Martín and passed it right away to his fellow Brazilian, Neymar. Neymar took advantage of the bad positioning by Leganés defenders and — he had four players over him blocking his passing chances — passed it to Luis Suárez. The Uruguayan sent an smooth, short cross from the left side to Lionel Messi who only had to slightly touch the ball to score the goal.

After that goal, Barcelona kept having problems on offense and on the defensive transitions. In fact, Leganés, a team that decided to play a defensive minded type of game and depends on the individual abilities of their forward, were able to create clear goal chances. Most of them came through Nabil El Zhar. In less than one minute, El Zhar shot twice on goal. He could not score a goal only because of Marc-André Ter Stegen’s reflects.

Barcelona continued struggling in the second half. Midfielders could not triangulate nor give meaning to the passes. That gave enough terrain for Leganés to venture on doing the high-pressure task. It worked perfectly. Sergi Roberto, Barcelona’s right-back, lost the ball in a crucial position because he did not have any passing option to avoid the high pressure applied by Miguel Ángel Guerrero. Guerrero stole the ball and passed it to Darwin Machís. The Venezuelan sent a short cross to the middle edge of the box. Unai López found it and sent the shot right away. A 1-1 game with 20 minutes left on the clock.

The hosts did not look patiently brave to take the control of the game back while being under an adversity. Individual plays were the saviors once again for Barcelona. In the first added minute, Neymar drove the ball deep through the left wing and found the way to get foul for a penalty. It was a controversial penalty because it seemed like Neymar jumped on Martín Mantovani while he was making the tackle. Messi did not hesitate and scored it — goal No. 19 for Messi in La Liga.

Barcelona survived a game that was not supposed to be a thriller, at least on the preview. But this is a sport impossible to predict in any kind of preview. This week will be crucial for Barcelona because they will have the chance to rest for an entire week for the first time in 2017. A little time to disconnect might come well for the players to face a difficult task next weekend: Atlético de Madrid.