Sergio Busquets' Winner Should Not Paper over Barcelona Cracks

Barcelona left the Mestalla on Sunday night with three important points and the wind in their sails, thanks to Sergio Busquets ramming the ball home from six yards out in the last minute of stoppage time.

They became the only team to take points from eight consecutive games at the Mestalla, re-closed the gap behind Real Madrid to just two points and leapfrogged Atletico Madrid.

Nobody got injured—although Lionel Messi was left rubbing his head after being hit with a bottle and was bizarrely booked for complaining about it—and Luis Enrique can play the reserves on Wednesday night when his team take on minnows Huesca in the Copa del Rey.

This victory, in what was the hardest remaining Liga match of 2014 for Barcelona, followed two emphatic routs of Sevilla and Apoel Nicosia and left everything rosy for the Blaugrana.

Alberto Saiz/Associated Press

Except in truth, Busquets’ goal felt like when you correctly guess the answer to a multiple choice question despite being clueless.

It wasn’t unfair that Barcelona won the game, technically. In fact, if the officials had done their job properly, Luis Suarez would have been celebrating his first goal in the Spanish top flight.

Dani Alves hooked the ball across to the Uruguayan, and Suarez stabbed home from close range, but was wrongly adjudged to be offside.

This particularly rankled for Cules, given Real Madrid have so far this season benefited from a few refereeing mistakes regarding offside calls—or, rather, a lack of offside calls.

Alberto Saiz/Associated Press

But Barcelona had not done enough to truly deserve the victory, and Nuno Espirito Santo’s men should have been able to walk off the pitch with their heads held high.

They didn’t, of course, because of the gut punch that arrived at the death. Messi—who had otherwise endured a barren 90 minutes lacking spark, inspiration and determination—eked out a quite brilliant cross to the back post to a waiting Neymar.

The Brazilian hitman had not enjoyed the game much either. His early “headbutt” on Nicolas Otamendi could have seen him sent off, even though it was rather light and the giant Argentine defender made enough of a meal of it to feed thousands.

After that, he was off his stride and surrendered possession on various occasions, looking nothing like the brutal, efficient striker we’ve been treated to for most of his second season with Barcelona.

Alberto Saiz/Associated Press

Alberto Saiz/Associated Press

Anyway, Messi’s ball landed on his forehead, but his effort was repelled by Valencia goalkeeper Diego Alves.

The stopper didn’t know much about it. The ball crashed off his face and went back to Busquets, who rifled home. He had been playing in an unorthodox role because Enrique shuffled things around. 

Perhaps anxious to have extra height on the pitch, the manager went with Jeremy Mathieu and Gerard Pique as the centre-back partnership, but he was reluctant to drop his favourite bulldog, Javier Mascherano.

So the Argentine played in Busquets’ role at the base of the midfield. Busquets took what has become Ivan Rakitic’s position, while Xavi filled the final midfield slot.

It was a solid-looking team, which led to a chess match of a first half. While the game was lacking in thrills and spills, it was intriguingly poised.

But Barcelona fans aren’t used to seeing their side play in games that they don’t dominate. And they never came close to taking this one by the scruff of the neck.

Claudio Bravo was the hero, making two brilliant saves in the second half to deny Sofiane Feghouli and then Alvaro Negredo.

Andres Kudacki/Associated Press

One problem that does seem to have been solved is that of Pique. For a while, he was in Enrique’s bad books, out of the team and over the back pages after various misdemeanours.

However, of late he’s been pretty good and—with Bravo to challenge him—was Barcelona’s best performer against Valencia.

While Barcelona taking the three points from this clash isn’t necessarily an injustice, it would be a catastrophic error for Enrique to ignore the lessons from the 90 minutes before Busquets’ late intervention.

Taking solace from the goal is fine, but only if during the week he’s trying to work out how Barcelona can link their razor-sharp attack with their somewhat directionless midfield.

How can Messi can go from being the best player in the world, as demonstrated against Sevilla and Apoel, to going AWOL like he did against Valencia?

How can Enrique have the power and height of Pique and Mathieu, but also keep one of his favourite players (Mascherano) in the side without sacrificing impetus in midfield by playing two defensive minded players?

There are plenty of chinks in the Barcelona armour, but Busquets’ strike has bought Enrique more time to identify them.