Malaga vs. Barcelona: Winners and Losers from La Liga Game
Barcelona dropped their first points of the season as they were held to a goalless draw by a determined Malaga at La Rosaleda on Wednesday night.
Lionel Messi cut a frustrated figure as his side failed to muster a shot on target throughout the 90 minutes, although they once again kept a clean sheet to keep alive their proud record of not conceding a goal this season.
Here are some winners and losers from the match.
Winners: Javi Gracia and Malaga
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Malaga coach Javi Gracia clearly had a game plan here, and his side executed it to the letter, allowing Barca to have the ball for large periods of the game, but then shutting them down whenever they came near the penalty area.
Gracia won’t win many awards or even friends for the approach, but it showed that Malaga have learned lessons from their 3-0 loss at Valencia earlier this season as they registered their third draw in a row.
This point will certainly serve more use to them than it will to Barca.
Loser: Douglas
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Brazilian defender Douglas made his Barcelona debut at right-back as Luis Enrique changed three of the back four from the 5-0 win at Levante at the weekend, and although he didn’t do anything drastically wrong, he was something of a peripheral figure as he sought to keep things simple.
In the first half especially, Barca could have benefitted from Douglas showing a little more ambition when he came forward, and he appeared to grow more and more jittery the longer the game went on before he was substituted shortly after pulling down Luis Alberto and receiving a yellow card.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if he finds himself back out of the team come the weekend.
Winner: Xavi
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As he watched on from the bench and ultimately failed to add to his 43 minutes of action so far this season, Xavi would have been forgiven for having a wry smile to himself.
This was probably Ivan Rakitic’s least effective game for Barca since he joined in the summer, and there were many calls for Enrique to introduce Xavi to give his side a greater presence on the ball throughout what became a really disappointing second half.
Those 43 minutes should be added to soon.
Loser: Malaga’s Groundsmen
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It doesn’t excuse Barca being so remarkably off-colour, but the pitch at La Rosaleda really didn’t help the case for a fast, free-flowing game of football.
The amount of sand which kicked up off the turf throughout the contest would have looked more at home on one of Malaga’s fine beaches, and it was a real shame to see such a surface have an impact on what could have been an entertaining game.
Of course, perhaps Malaga left the pitch this way in order to try and get an advantage over Barca, but if they did, then it meant that was a tough watch for all of us.
Winners: The Madrid Clubs
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Of course Barca’s first concession of any points this season was going to be celebrated in the Spanish capital, especially as their two main title rivals both picked up victories in the 24 hours before this match.
Real beat Elche 5-1 at home to how make it 18 goals in their last three games, whilst Atletico held out to win 1-0 at Almeria courtesy of a Miranda goal.
They’ll feel as though they got one over on Barca this week, whilst Sevilla shouldn’t be overlooked after on-loan Barca man Gerard Deulofeu gave them a 1-0 win over Real Sociedad as they moved level on points at the top of the table.
Loser: Lionel Messi
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Any such headline like the one above is difficult to write because you know that at some point Lionel Messi will bounce back and make a fool of you, but on the night that he chased his 400th goal for club and country, the Argentinean fell flat.
That was a literal translation of what happened late on when he was grabbed by Weligton and fell to the floor somewhat dramatically, but that should probably have been a red card for the lucky Malaga man, something that Messi was clearly trying to win.
Like everything else for him on an extremely quiet night by his standards, it didn’t quite go to plan.
