Copa del Rey observations

The last Copa del Rey victory from Barcelona when faced to Villarreal al camp was a tough game and Barcelona had to work had to win the fixture, this are the important points of the game.

-    The Barcelona defense is still struggling and they are conceding a lot of goals in the last matches. They have conceded 7 goals in the last 4 matches, but make no mistake, this were against top class clubs. They seem to be defending well as a unit, with Pique in his best form, Mathieu superb even after coming from an injury and Mascherano and Bartra eager to play and shine. But the defense must improve if the want to win titles.

-    Neymar was not the player that everybody wants to see, he did not make a good impression during the game and he even missed a penalty. He seems a bit tired, he has played nearly all the games in this season and playing the entire 90 minutes with full coverage doesn’t help. This was already clear in his last La Liga match against Bilbao where he missed some good chances.

-    Mascherano is an incredible player, he was perfect all the match, he was everywhere with impeccable passings, well positioned and snuffing out counterattacks. He had a top notch performance once again with a top quality opponent and he was without doubt the MVP of the game, closely followed by Suarez and Messi.

-    We saw another silly mistake from Ter Stegen in the only goal from Villareal, he is still young but this is not the first time he had this kind of mistakes in his career. February is coming with very important games and an international goa

-    Suarez was once again an important part in Barcelona’s victory, he was involved in the first two Barcelona goals, however, he is still adapting to this new style of play and still needs some time to be at his best form.

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La liga review

Last Sunday Barcelona victory put the squad just one point behind leaders Real Madrid at the top of the table and marked Lionel Messi 300th La Liga appearance and 31sh hat-trick.

In third place, current champions Atletico Madrid is now seven points of the top after losing 2-0 at Celta Vigo.

Last victory marked an incredible 11 wins in all competitions for Barcelona and despite eight changes from Copa del Rey squad, the team

never looked in danger.

Also with this run, Barcelona has tied Pep Guardiola’s best run during his successful four-year spell as Barcelona squad manager. Despite this figures, Luis Enrique insisted to the press that winning at the season’s end is what matters and that records are positive but they have no interest for him.

Victories are important for the fans and they need to be optimistic, but at the end, it’s not a matter of how many games we win, what is important is that the help us to win trophies.

The team had a subdued start with only Messi, Neymar and Mascherano as the only survivors from the 3-1 cup semi-final victory over Villareal. But this ended after the first lucky goal from Neymar.

Atletico Madrid on the other hand was a shadow of the team that trashed Real Madrid with a  convincing 4-0 final score and last weekend they had their fifth defeat of the season and most likely ended with their title hopes.

Celta was able to dominate the first half of the fixture but without any clear opportunity but they had their opportunity thanks to a penalty signaled by the referee when Nolito was upended by Mario Suarez.

Nolito scored the first goal and Athletico came alive but all hopes were lost  just 20 minutes before the end of the match, Michael Krohn-Dehli fed Fabian Orellana who put the ball into the far corner.

Valencia won their match against Getafe with a penalty 19 minutes from time and their victory moved them into fourth position of La Liga table.

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Copa del Rey semifinal

Villareal is once again in another semifinal of a cup competition and getting there hasn't been easy, they have been in semifinals of Champions League, UEFA cup and Europa League before, but never reached the final.

Maybe is time to get there, but they have to face a big problem, Barcelona. Just a month ago, Barcelona was facing a “crisis” with rumors of manager Luis Enrique not getting along with Lionel Messi, transfer ban, and so forth.

So, Barcelona may have their problems, but most of the teams will be happy to have such problems if they could call on players like Messi, Neymar and Suarez.

Barcelona has won the cup more than anyone, 26 times, but they have failed to do so since 2012 and even more worrying for Villarreal, Barcelona will face Levante at home next weekend, an easy match so they have no reason to rest their top players.

Villareal has been playing well even on their defeat at Barcelona in La Liga just two weeks ago, they played hard and had their chances to win the match.

In the other side of the pitch, Barcelona’s defense has been less than stellar lately, in the last three matches they have allowed six goals, but they have scored 11 in the same amount of fixtures. So the big key for the match is trying to stop the front line from scoring 3 or more goals.

Barcelona’s manager Luis Enrique already said that winning is the key of this match and that he is not worried about keeping a clean sheet, so if Villarreal can end the match with a draw of even lose for just one goal they will feel that they have a chance to move forward to the final.

But a defeat for 3-1 or 4-1 in this match will most likely end the Villarreal’s dream to be in a final. They haven’t beaten Barcelona since 2008, so a victory and with more than a goal advantage is difficult to imagine.

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Barcelona wins first quarter-final Copa del Rey match

Barcelona had a first victory of their Copa del Rey quarter-final tie over Atletico Madrid, Lionel Messi was able to score following up his saved penalty and secure a 1-0 victory at Camp Nou last Wednesday.

Barça, as usual on the last games, was able to dominate ball possession over last year La Liga champions but Atletico defense held Barcelona until Juanfran made a foul over Sergio Busquets just six minutes before the end of the clash.

Messi kick was stopped by Atletico goalkeeper jan Oblak, but the ball bounced back to the Argentinian and he tapped it into the net and gave the advantage to his team ahead of return match on Wednesday next week at Vicente Calderón.

Iniesta commented after the match that this is a good result but there will be 90 very intense minutes on second leg match, adding that their performance was very good and the opponent very tough to overcome.

After last 3-1 defeat in La Liga, Atletico improved their defense performance and where really close to become the second team to avoid conceding at Camp Nou. Atletico was able to restrict Messi, who came from a hat-trick in last Barcelona’s La Liga victory, and the Argentinian only had and opportunity in the 12th minute.

After the goal, Messi had another chance to score, but his free kick in the added time from just outside Atletico’s area was too high.

Suarez had his best opportunity to score in the first half of the match but the ball ended in the crossbar.

Atletico expects to turn around the result and keep the good defense, said Brazilian Miranda, also the fans will help them to fight back.

Villareal or Getafe are the possible opponents in the last four and Villarreal was able to win the first leg when captain Bruno Soriano curled a free kick just 5 minutes before the end time; Soriano came off the bench just 30 minutes earlier.

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Deportivo La Coruña 0, Barcelona 4

Yet again, after a week of rumors of Messi leaving Barcelona, he reminded as of his quality with a hat-trick at Riazor.

He put attention back to the on-pitch brilliance in the latest Barcelona’s La Liga victory at Deportivo La Coruña on Sunday.

During last monday’s Ballon d’Or ceremony, messi fueled speculations of him leaving the Catalans when he commented that “I don’t know where I’ll be next year” in the gala at Zurich. However he showed his commitment to the team with an incredible performance in Galicia.

The match was broken 10 minutes after the start with a header from Messi, followed by a second one in the 33rd minute after a magnificent team move that he ended.

The third and final score for messi arrived just 15 minutes after the start of the second half with a fierce low drive into the bottom-right corner.

The final fourth came from Sidnei just seven minutes before the end of the match.

This victory allowed the Catalans to stay just one point behind the leaders, Real Madrid, while Deportivo drop down to be just one point above the relegation zone.

Deportivo was chasing shadow for the majority of the first half and the final score would be even higher if Suarez had not wasted his chance.

The second goal from Messi was a brilliant move, Messi started with a precise pass to Neymer to the left, stormed into the box to meet the return and loft it over Fabricio.

During the half-time, Jose Rodriguez entered the pitch for Ivan Cavaleiro by Deportivo and at the beginning of the second half they were pretty close to half the deficit by Juan Dominguez. But all the hopes were ended, again, with a brilliant Messi when he unleashed a low strike that left the goalkeeper with no chance.

From there on, Barcelona slowed down thinking about the next Copa del Rey match, but was a fortunate fourth as Dani Alves cross bounced into Alberto Lopo and Sidnei to the net.

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Luis Enrique starts to understand his team

Finally Luis Enrique was able to pick the right team for his last match against Elche, he gave some of the reserve players time in the pitch and also debuted two youngsters and allowed the first team to rest for Sunday’s match.

Last time he put Neymar and Messi on the bench was two weaks in San Sebastian but this didn’t work as expected and it was clearly a bad idea from the kick off.

But things changed when facing Atletico Madrid and in a difficult week, the team seem like the can stand up and face everything.

And this is what they will need for the coming weeks, where they will face four difficult matches, facing Atletico two more times in Copa del Rey and Manchester City twice again in Champions League.

Last match allowed Luis Enrique to leave behind at Barcelona his stars, Messy, Neymar and Suarez avoiding a 330 mile travel to the small city of Elche.

Instead Pedro was able to score and put 90 minutes of game play and Adama showed his skill against a top-flight side, even when Elche’s first team weren’t all on the field, but it was a greater challenge than Segunda Division.

At the goalkeeper position, Enrique put Marc-Andre ter Stegen and he showed to the coach that he could be a good replacement to Victor Valdes in the long term, with an excellent ball control and quick mind.

This match was also the debut in the senior team for Gerard Gumbau and Sergi Roberto, and they played as expected and didn’t put a foot out of line, impressive being their debut.

Alen Halilovic had his minutes in substitution of Adama after an hour of game and made also his debut; and he is impressive, with good touches and neat runs and nearly was able to score his first goal in his debut.

Halilovic was the seventh young team player that had his debut in the first team since Luis Enrique has been at the club.

This was a good day for the team and now they will face Deportivo de La Coruña on Sunday with a fully rested first team and in the right direction.

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When the front line works

Last sunday’s victory over Atletico Madrid in La Liga put Barcelona just one point behind leaders Real Madrid and a small gap between them and Atleti in third.

The victory was due to an impressive attacking power the the front line formed by Luis Suarez, Messi and Neymar working as a team and with great effect. This is wat the team needs after a difficult week, but now they need to show this consistency during the rest of the season, specially Neymar.

During this season, the midfield has seen a lot of changes and Luis Enrique is still trying to find a good formation, he started with Xavi joined by Iniesta after his recovery, Rakitc has faced some criticism and Busquets is lacking form.

But for the most part, the front line has been the same since Suarez has been able to play after his suspension, and when Enrique has changed, it didn’t go well, loosing against Real Sociedad with Messi and Neymar starting on the bench.

This is the first time that Neymar has put a “Brazil” type of performance with Barcelona, with much of the play going through him; he attacked with confidence ambition and with good results. The defense was unable to cope and Josema Gimenez was lucky to stay on the pitch after a terrible foul on Neymar.

Messi was the playmaker and Neymar put the danger in the attacks with his footwork always right on the point.This was everything that we expected from the three, but for Neymar was a stand-out performance.

But this is not enough, Neymar started the season with a great scoring form, but he only had one goal since late November until last Sunday, and this is not the kind of display that he needs, he must show the capacity to deliver every week, against all kind of opponents.

If Neymar can duplicate what he did last Sunday during the rest of the season, then Barcelona will be much closer to the big prices, and probably be on the podium at the Ballon d’Or ceremonies were his team mate Messi has stood upon for the last few years.

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Real Sociedad 1-0 Barcelona

Barcelona was not able to take advantage of Real Madrid loss at Valencia and go top of la Liga table after a 1-0 loss last Sunday at Anoeta.

Real Madrid 2-1 loss against Valencia meant that a victory of Barça will put the Catalans at the top of La Liga, but Jordi Alba’s goal in his own net just two minutes into play at San Sebastian stopped this opportunity.

Barcelona in the last six games at Anoeta, home of Real Sociedad, have drawn two and lost four of the matches. And this defeat has also broken their 11 game unbeaten run, with their last loss against Celta Vigo in early November.

Luis Enrique started the match with two of his starts benched, Lionel Messi and Neymar, after both men had an extra two days Christmas break and returned later than the rest of the team.

But unsurprisingly, both entered the game trying to equalize the score; Messi at half-time and Neymar shortly after. Luis Enrique attempts to bring the three points to Barcelona wasn’t successful and Sociedad lifted themselves three places thanks to the points.

Barça fell behind in the opening exchanges and a corner taken short to Sergio Canales ended with Alba heading the ball into his own net and Claudio Bravo unable to stop it.

Barcelona first effort came late in the match, and did not arrive until the 21st minute with a curled 25 yard free kick of Xavi.

Although Barcelona were dominating the possession, they were not able to score and former Real man Canales was a threat on the counter-attack.

Geronimo Rulli, Sociedad goalkeeper, stopped Pedro effort with his legs while Barcelona continued to press for and equalizer.

Ather the interval, and with Messi in the pitch, Barcelon kept their dominance but the goal did not come.

In the last minutes of the game, a neat interplay between Iniesta and Alba allowed Xavi to have a good opportunity, but his effort was again stopped by Rulli.

Just minutes after, Rulli raced to stop Suarez attempt to go round him and score, but the goalkeeper reacted and kept out the Uruguayan from the net.

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