Barcelona Squeaks Past Zaragoza, but Fails to Convince; Arsenal Is Next

With Tuesday’s do or die match against Arsenal looming on the horizon, FC Barcelona hosted Zaragoza on Saturday, and looked to maintain their seven-point league lead and rest some of their important pieces. 

Guardiola, who went directly to the hospital following Wednesday’s victory over Valencia, managed to make it to the Camp Nou, noticeably suffering from a herniated disc in his lower back.  Joining him on the bench were the likes of David Villa, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, and Eric Abidal.  

Puyol, who was expected to be cleared to play, sat out his 12th straight match.  Victor Valdes, however, did return. 

Despite these notable absences, Barcelona took complete control from kick-off, showing their Camp Nou swagger with total dominance of the ball.  

Whereas the team had difficulty getting possession against Valencia, the Blaugrana slung the ball around with ease, planting themselves firmly in Zaragoza’s half and beginning their dissection of the defence.  

A shellacking seemed inevitable, but Zaragoza actually came the closest to scoring first. In the eighth minute, a long clearance was headed past Milito, and Bertolo broke through for a one-on-one with Valdes.  Pique, sprinting back, made a monstrous lunge to poke the ball away and save a sure goal. 

Barcelona continued their domination, and Zaragoza continued to dump clearances in the direction of their strikers.  Pique and Milito took turns heading the ball back into midfield, where Xavi, Mascherano, and Keita easily controlled.  Zaragoza was so socked in that ball rotations, instead of running through the center backs, came through Xavi in midfield.  

There was an electricity to Barça’s movement: each pass moved crisply to its target, each touch looked sure and elegant, easy passes were always available and often taken.  

Barcelona looked to net one of their trademark goals—one-two combinations sending tiny dagger passes into the box—but Zaragoza fended off attack after attack.  Toni Doblas began his epic night in front of goal, sending a clinical strike from Xavi out for a corner in the 20th minute.

Bojan looked hungry in his rare start, eagerly striking on goal whenever space allowed, and Mascherano had a dynamite strike of his own parried by a diving Doblas.  Xavi, Alves, and Messi triangulated for some breathtaking combinations.

In the 28th minute Alves found Keita in front of goal for a free header that was sent into the back of the net emphatically, but disallowed by the referee’s assistant.  The would-be goal looked so effortless, opportunities were coming one after the other, and a downpour of goals seemed to be just around the corner. 

By the 42nd minute, as Barça continued to possess, Zaragoza looked rather comfortable in defence.  Resigned to dropping 10 men back, they challenged the home side to beat them in the final third.  

As Messi began a run down the right-hand side of the box, he was met by three defenders who, sealing off his favorite avenue across the front of goal, forced him to the touchline.  Methodically, at half-speed, Messi took up the space given, but looked to cut back across to his strong left foot.  The defenders held their ground, refusing to over-commit, and forced Messi further towards the baseline.  

Suddenly, with a change of pace and a touch ahead, "La Pulga" beat all three men to the line and sent a perfect little cross to the front of goal, which fell to Keita, who blasted home the long-awaited goal.  The half ended with the score 1-0, the home crowd relieved, and victory seemingly in hand.

Zaragoza’s strategy remained unchanged in the second half, but their wishful clearances began to be dangerously controlled for some real opportunities in front of goal.  Both Milito and Pique were beaten badly by Sinama-Pongolle, and in the 61st minute he nearly had a goal.  A deep ball was sent his way, and with a special bit of skill he brought it down and neatly blew past Pique, leaving just Valdes to beat.  The Barcelona keeper charged boldly, and somehow managed to block Pongolle’s attempt with a spectacular slide. 

The Nou Camp, seeing how close the game was to a tie, began to call anxiously for more, and Barça seemed to respond, at least briefly.  Bojan found himself free from close range after a lengthy Barça build-up, but his crossing shot to the far post was parried by a superman-like dive from Doblas. 

Minutes later Sinama-Pongolle again controlled a deep clearance, earning a rare corner kick for Zaragoza.  

The single goal did not seem sufficient, and Pep began to send in his stars, first Villa for Bojan, then Abidal for Maxwell, and finally Iniesta for Pedro.  Guardiola no doubt hoped that his best men would come together in the closing stretch, bury Zaragoza, and establish a rhythm that would carry through to the Champions League clash with Arsenal.

But with 20 minutes to go, and then just ten, Barcelona still could not score, and indeed their possession began to slip.  Passes were broken up, players looked out of sync—like when Messi sent a perfectly weighted pass through to a completely empty right wing, and 90,000 pairs of eyes watched the ball roll quietly out of bounds.  

Zaragoza seemed content with the result, and increasingly solid in defence.  Whereas Barcelona worked the ball from side to side more than fifteen times in the first half alone, rotation was nowhere to be found, and things looked generally sloppy.

As the final minutes ticked away, Messi seemed to sense the urgency of the moment, and made a scintillating run through the heart of the defense before being taken down hard by Lanzaro, who received a yellow card.  Messi took the free kick from just outside the box, and in the game’s final play, sent a curling shot just wide of the right upright.

Despite earning three points, one could argue that the game ended poorly for Barcelona: a match that began with utter domination and complete control, ended with just a one-goal win and some disorganized play.  All this against a Zaragoza side that is once again struggling to remain in Primera, and with 90 hard minutes from Leo Messi.

What Barcelona needed was an emphatic trouncing of a bottom-tier club, where the second half would find Messi and Xavi heading for the bench to standing ovations.  What they got was a sickening reminder that picture-perfect tiki-taka can come up empty, and a whole lot of questions heading into Tuesday’s match with Arsenal.