Club World Cup: Al Sadd 0-4 FC Barcelona Match Review

Barcelona embarked on their Club World Cup campaign with a Semi Final facing Al-Sadd, the AFC Champs. Pep’s Starting line-up was: Valdes, Adriano, Puyol, Mascherano, Abidal, Thiago, Keita,  Iniesta, Pedro, Messi, Villa. The Barca boss decided to rest some of his big guns such as Xavi, Fabregas, Alves & Pique.

Barcelona took a few minutes to settle into the game, but after the opening 5 minutes, it was all possession for Barca. The Catalans applied early pressure with chances coming from Messi, Villa & Pedro. The ALS guys saw very little of the Barca side of the pitch, and Victor Valdes was really more of a spectator. Despite all the pressure and possession, I felt Barca did not finish off as they should have. After 25 minutes, Adriano touched one in after a mix up with the ALS defender Belhadj and Keeper Mohamed. As the commentator noted “Pep Guardiola himself look embarrassed to accept the goal.”

Messi and Iniesta were outstanding, with the little Argentine weaving his way through the defence, and Iniesta in Xavi’s abscence, very much the lynch-pin of the midfield. Such was the pressure from the Blaugrana,that at any given time there were 10 ALS players pulled back to defend. David Villa, whose been suffering from a bout of low confidence, especially with speculation rife in Spain that he’ll soon be on his way out of Barcelona, had a few good chances. And as it Villa’s style, at least 3 of those chances were offside. At 33 minutes, Villa received an absolute beauty of a ball from Iniesta which he failed to control. In the process it looked like he twisted his ankle and called for the stretcher. Alexis Sanchez was brought in to replace Villa. As the game progressed, news came in that Villa had sustained a fractured tibia and will be out for at least 6 months. This is really upsetting news, not only for Barca, but this injury throws doubt over whether he will feature for Spain in EURO 2012. After the game, his teammates all took to twitter to wish him well (See Gallery). You can also show support for Villa by tweeting “#animsVilla.” Pep Guardiola confirmed that the striker will be flown back to Barcelona immediately to receive treatment.

Adriano, the unlikely hero of the first goal, took a superb shot from just within the area to score his second of the match. Late in the second half, ALS musters half a chance with Keita (not Barca’s Keita) shooting too high above the cross-bar. Just before halftime, ALS managed a free kick, but failed to do anything useful with it.

The second half was very much the same story. Barcelona dominated and all ALS could do was defend. Not to take anything away from them, I felt they played with their hearts and defended admirably. One particular instance was a free-kick taken by Messi, goalkeeper Mohamed pulled off a fine save as he punched away the ball which was surely headed for goal. In another moment of brilliance that drove the crowd wild was a run from Messi down the right, but his bicycle kick shot was too wide.

A rather quiet Seydou Keita picked up Messi’s brilliant pass and gave Barca their third. In the meantime, quizzically, Alexis Sanchez was subbed for Cuenca.  It turns out, the Chilean who came on for the injured Villa, had picked up an injury of his own. Officials have confirmed that Alexis was subbed as a precaution after a minor hamstring pull. Maxwell, who replaced Abidal scored Barca’s fourth and final of the night as the Quataris defence was caught napping.

Barcelona are through to the finals, where they will face a much stronger team, The South American Champions Santos.

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