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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