Valencia Beating Must Be Final Failure for Barcelona If They Want La Liga Title
CAMP NOU, Barcelona — Gerard Pique bellowed at his team-mates, eyes bulging with frustration. Barcelona had fallen behind to a sloppy goal, put into his own net by Ivan Rakitic after Guilherme Siqueira had slipped in down the left.
It was a lazy piece of defending by Rakitic, usually one of the hardest-working players in the squad, not tracking the Brazilian defender’s run. Then, because of his positioning, he ended up flicking the ball beyond Claudio Bravo.
The Chilean goalkeeper wasn’t having his best game, either, partly at fault for the second goal—he got a hand to Santi Mina’s effort but could only push it inside his own post.
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But Pique and Sergi Roberto were at fault too. The latter, playing at right-back, lost track of where Mina was, spinning around after Dani Parejo threaded the ball through the gap between him and Pique to see the youngster tuck it home.
These errors, along with mistakes made by Jordi Alba—who was wasteful with the ball in attacking areas too often—and Sergio Busquets, who failed to take the game by the scruff of the neck, show that it isn’t just the “MSN” attacking trident who have been letting the team down. There are problems in various places.
Lionel Messi scored in the second half, making it 1-2 to Valencia, and that’s how the scoreboard stayed. It shouldn’t have—Barcelona missed a host of chances in the game, one of the best falling to Pique in the dying stages.
Andres Iniesta’s floated cross found him at the back post, all alone. His first touch was quite excellent, killing the ball and opening up room to take a shot. It looked for all the world like he was about to ram the ball past the excellent Diego Alves to at least earn Barcelona a point, but he shanked his effort well wide.
Pique fell to his knees, running his hands through his hair, before pressing his head into the grass, wishing the ground would swallow him up. He’s not one to hide away, though. He spoke to the media after the game in the mixed zone.
"It’s incredible that the stars can align like this. We played well, we didn't deserve to lose, but sometimes football is cruel. We leave with our head held high. We gave our all,” he said.
"I prefer to lose playing like this than playing like we had done recently. I am convinced that playing like this, we’ll be OK. Atletico and Madrid can also lose points, but we should take this on thinking we'll need to win all five remaining games.”
Pique was right. Despite the result, Barcelona had played better than in recent weeks. Whereas against Atletico Madrid in the Vicente Calderon the strikers, Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar, were stifled, here they had plenty of joy when it came to seeking out chances.
In fact, they should all have scored within the first eight minutes. And by half-time, they could have had a brace apiece. Neymar’s lob was too shallow, Messi fired a ball straight down the Brazilian’s throat from close range, Suarez headed over from two yards out. But at least the openings were coming.
Pique was also right about needing to win the final five matches. Five victories, and Barcelona lift the title.
Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid have been relentless in recent weeks, as they hunted down the runaway leaders, and the league is finely poised now.
Barcelona and Atletico joint top on 76 points, although the Catalans would win the title if they finished level thanks to their better head-to-head record, then Madrid on 75.
Although Barcelona don’t have the distraction of the Champions League unlike the Madrid sides, that advantage is severely impacted by this week’s schedule.
Including the Valencia game, Barcelona have three matches in six days. They now face Deportivo de la Coruna on Wednesday in Galicia, before hosting Sporting Gijon on Saturday.
The Asturian side are fighting for their lives, and Depor have shown they are dangerous—they took two points off Barcelona back before Christmas.
What’s more, Pique is suspended and unavailable for the upcoming trip to the Riazor in the north-west of Spain. But his team-mates would do well to stick to his plan.
Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
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