Athletic Bilbao vs. Barsa

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Madrid are very unlucky to be playing Bilbao after they have already adapted to Bielsa. I do expect them to put up a fight as well.

Also, let's not stress about Madrid yet. They'll lose points eventually, we have yet to lose a game (thanks to Leo, today).

Luck has nothing to do with Madrid this season, Cosmo. If anything, they re unlucky because of all the injuries that are hitting their first team players.

I sense harmony, agreement, motivation, hope, belief in the madrid camp. It's not a matter we can do it anymore, it's we will do it.

The way things are going, i disagree with alot of people here, Madrid are not playing their best football yet. Barca on the other hand are giving their best and i expect a dip in form. Yesterday's game is no surprise, Barca gave it their 100%.

Let's see how the events will unfold.

huntsman wrote:

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Madrid are very unlucky to be playing Bilbao after they have already adapted to Bielsa. I do expect them to put up a fight as well.

Also, let's not stress about Madrid yet. They'll lose points eventually, we have yet to lose a game (thanks to Leo, today).

Luck has nothing to do with Madrid this season, Cosmo. If anything, they re unlucky because of all the injuries that are hitting their first team players.

I sense harmony, agreement, motivation, hope, belief in the madrid camp. It's not a matter we can do it anymore, it's we will do it. Because of hammering Osasuna who gave up and were down to ten men you think you're going to win it all now?

The way things are going, i disagree with alot of people here, Madrid are not playing their best football yet. Barca on the other hand are giving their best and i expect a dip in form. Yesterday's game is no surprise, Barca gave it their 100%.

Let's see how the events will unfold.

Your delusional blabbering isn't making much sense as usual.

Lionel Messi wrote:

huntsman wrote:

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Madrid are very unlucky to be playing Bilbao after they have already adapted to Bielsa. I do expect them to put up a fight as well.

Also, let's not stress about Madrid yet. They'll lose points eventually, we have yet to lose a game (thanks to Leo, today).

Luck has nothing to do with Madrid this season, Cosmo. If anything, they re unlucky because of all the injuries that are hitting their first team players.

I sense harmony, agreement, motivation, hope, belief in the madrid camp. It's not a matter we can do it anymore, it's we will do it. Because of hammering Osasuna who gave up and were down to ten men you think you're going to win it all now?

The way things are going, i disagree with alot of people here, Madrid are not playing their best football yet. Barca on the other hand are giving their best and i expect a dip in form. Yesterday's game is no surprise, Barca gave it their 100%.

Let's see how the events will unfold.

Your delusional blabbering isn't making much sense as usual.

and as usual, it will be the only thing that makes sense when the time comes.

Everything seems to be in order here.

huntsman wrote:

kiranr wrote:This is a tough fixture and getting a point out of it is great. I am very confident we will retain the league this year.

I am also confident you wont, not La Liga. I will reserve giving any opinions on the CL though cause that's another story.

All La Liga teams as a whole got some sort of vaccination against your team's play. Barca's play has been exploited.

If Messi stays in this hot form then anything is possible, but i wouldnt hold my breath on that possibility.

I can guarantee you one thing though, Real Madrid are not afraid of Barca anymore (the players i mean). They are eager to encouter you, anytime anywhere. Doesnt matter whether its at the Camp Nou or Bernabeu.

Things have changed from last season. But anything can happen.

All this confidence of Madrid players and their fans was born in the highly competitive Super Cup matches, when one team was on Vacation the other was fully fit for matches and organized well in many friendlies.. its ok, all things should be cleared up next classico, if Madrid win, then hats off, you got your self a real chance for many different reasons.

But honestly yes Real are playing well these days, well enough to be considered a close second to Barca. Being more harmonic, motivated and having more belief is indeed obvious and is evident, but that does not translate into having more ability, more skill then FCB.

Anyway... getting back on topic... This game was tremendous. What an advert for La Liga.

Bilbao presses us and attacked quickly, effectively and showed great technical and tactical ability. We showed we were equals and some of our play around their pressure was outstanding.

One of the most entertaining games I've seen in the past year... probably the best of this year so far along with the Supercup clashes which were fantastic as well. As a Barca fan, I really needed this... I was getting sick of the boring tactics employed by most teams.

Hats of to Bielsa, he is an incredible coach. This Bilbao team, I hope, can make it into Europe and create some real waves.

All we have to do is look at Pep's words:

“How can I not be happy with the spectacular show that the 22 players put on for us?... Everyone enjoyed this marvelous game thanks to these very good players. This was an ode to football.”

BarcaKizz wrote:Anyway... getting back on topic... This game was tremendous. What an advert for La Liga.

Bilbao presses us and attacked quickly, effectively and showed great technical and tactical ability. We showed we were equals and some of our play around their pressure was outstanding.

One of the most entertaining games I've seen in the past year... probably the best of this year so far along with the Supercup clashes which were fantastic as well. As a Barca fan, I really needed this... I was getting sick of the boring tactics employed by most teams.

Hats of to Bielsa, he is an incredible coach. This Bilbao team, I hope, can make it into Europe and create some real waves.

All we have to do is look at Pep's words:

“How can I not be happy with the spectacular show that the 22 players put on for us?... Everyone enjoyed this marvelous game thanks to these very good players. This was an ode to football.”

This!!! I would want a win, but with the game Bilbao made i am happy with a draw. And they had an answer to our game that was not park-the-buss technique - a move that some say is genius LOL

eelir wrote:

BarcaKizz wrote:Anyway... getting back on topic... This game was tremendous. What an advert for La Liga.

Bilbao presses us and attacked quickly, effectively and showed great technical and tactical ability. We showed we were equals and some of our play around their pressure was outstanding.

One of the most entertaining games I've seen in the past year... probably the best of this year so far along with the Supercup clashes which were fantastic as well. As a Barca fan, I really needed this... I was getting sick of the boring tactics employed by most teams.

Hats of to Bielsa, he is an incredible coach. This Bilbao team, I hope, can make it into Europe and create some real waves.

All we have to do is look at Pep's words:

“How can I not be happy with the spectacular show that the 22 players put on for us?... Everyone enjoyed this marvelous game thanks to these very good players. This was an ode to football.”

This!!! I would want a win, but with the game Bilbao made i am happy with a draw. And they had an answer to our game that was not park-the-buss technique - a move that some say is genius LOL

Any team which parks the bus against Barca is bound to lose the game.
All teams who made Barca bleed points didnt park the bus.

Parking the bus is a myth which doesnt exist anymore. It goes back to the year 2010.

Tough match!! important point.. yeah we are 3pts behind madrid, but there is still 81pts.. long way to go with tough matches for bith teams (including 2 classicos).. Madrid has to play vs Bilbao & Valencia away..

Hard Luck !! Respect for Biesla that he didn't park the bus and played football.. it was a ver entertaining match to watch ( rain also helped)..
Respect for Guardiola classy like always (comments after the match).

We all wanted to win this match, but after bilbao's performance (although we were better overall) they deserve a point... hope he play a simliar match against Madrid...

Finally, Valdes record stops at 896 consecutive minutes without conceeding a goal (Club Record) congrats for him

- Barca are now 24 matches unbeaten [club record 28 matches]

Visca el Barca <3

Mixed feelings.

First of all, great game and congrats to Bilbao because they deserved at least a point. They played fantastically and it was no fluke that our goals didnt come from our usual way. Respect to them.

The pitch played its part, the rain made it impossible in the last 30 minutes to play how we would of wanted. I also read Bielsa has been known to waterlog training pitches in preparation for games with the possibility of rain. The man is a legend.

The result isnt a terrible one by any means, as I said in an earlier post we will do well to win and I would of took any kind of win.

What I am dissapointed about is Pep´s team selection. He knew they were going to press, that was obvious, so why play with so many midfielders and NOBODY running in behind?

Cuenca, Villa, Sanchez...someone.....

How was slowpoke Cesc and a fullback going to stretch the play and give us space?

As soon as I saw the line up I was that much more worried and it was no coincidence we didnt score via our usual play when you consider the line up, the rain and ability of Bilbao.

They have big, tall players who are great when everything is in front of them. Where was the players running in behind to open up the lines?

Didn't understand that at all.

Sanchez came on at 60, at that point the rain was incredible and you could clearly see the difficulties for players of his kind.

As I said, mixed feelings.

I also was a bit confused as to why Villa or Sanchez didn't start.

I partly understood his selection. Cesc offers runs from deep and the possibility of popping up and taking a goal in tough conditions, which he did. Perhaps he also wanted the security of Adriano against a tough opponent. However, I do think that in the first half, we were still able to play the ball nicely and a player like Villa or Sanchez would have been ideal.

I'm finding it kind of interesting that Cesc is being reduced to a 'Tim Cahill for Australia' sort of role... He does it pretty well though. I wonder if he was bought mainly for this reason?

Well, I dont know if that was his intended role or not. Only Pep would know.

But I am quite frustrated by his lack of other skills to be honest, he is so slow and because he cant dribble like Iniesta or even Xavi, he can only do the basics on the ball if there isnt a pass on.

Dont want to bash him too much because it was a very well taken goal and a great header (the cross from Abidal was 10 out of 10 I did want to say) but I didnt understand his selection.

For me, the last thing you want to do when you have a team that is pressing you and are physically strong is fill your team with midfielders and dont offer threats in behind.

I didnt understand Adriano because Abidal on the left was almost like a leftsided centerback, he never came forward in open play. While Iraola is a good player, he isnt a attacking threat we have to worry about greatly. So its not like that flank was a great worry.

I just felt Pep got this one quite wrong tbh.

Dear Senyors de Cules,
I humbly requested your opinion upon this matter: https://goallegacy.forumotion.com/t11645-this-is-water

Gracies

I'm 40 minutes in right now, and you guys really needed more from Busquets

Xavi and Iniesta were being marked so tightly...Busquets being the deepest midfielder he had time and space on the ball that the other two just couldn't manage to seize because of the pressing. The main form of pressure on Busquets seems to be Llorente retreating to get goal side of him (which I've noticed he only does when Busquets actually receives the ball) but with only one Bilbao player splitting time between the deepest midfielder and the two center backs, Busquets has got to be able to do more than just provide an outlet for a simple one-two to keep possession...

I somewhat agree.

But more so, overall I thought he had a off game and took a surprising amount of time on the ball and some loose passes.

1. It might be Pep's most conservative lineup to date.

2. dani, excellent post and very agreeable comments about Fabregas.

3. Am I the only one who thinks we played really well and would have likely won but for the rain? Some of the players exhibited a wonderful combo of silk and steel. Iniesta was let down by his shot taking which is not unexpected but his general play in terms of showing great skill in tight spaces and trying very hard to carve out opportunities against all odds was commendable.

4. That said Bilbao played very well too. On one side this match was a spectacle in itself seeing two highly combative sides give their all under trying circumstances but on the other hand it would have been great to see a true game of football instead without the rain.

5. I didn't think of this then but the commentator pointed it out. On a pitch where it was difficult to make even a short pass accurately Mascherano's long pass to Valdes was a wrong decision. Conceding a throw in at the half way line would have been much better than conceding a corner. It cost us the second goal. It's a shame that Pique who I think was playing like a lion heart till then unfortunately let in that own goal.

messixaviesta wrote:1. It might be Pep's most conservative lineup to date.

2. dani, excellent post and very agreeable comments about Fabregas.

3. Am I the only one who thinks we played really well and would have likely won but for the rain? Some of the players exhibited a wonderful combo of silk and steel. Iniesta was let down by his shot taking which is not unexpected but his general play in terms of showing great skill in tight spaces and trying very hard to carve out opportunities against all odds was commendable.

4. That said Bilbao played very well too. On one side this match was a spectacle in itself seeing two highly combative sides give their all under trying circumstances but on the other hand it would have been great to see a true game of football instead without the rain.

5. I didn't think of this then but the commentator pointed it out. On a pitch where it was difficult to make even a short pass accurately Mascherano's long pass to Valdes was a wrong decision. Conceding a throw in at the half way line would have been much better than conceding a corner. It cost us the second goal. It's a shame that Pique who I think was playing like a lion heart till then unfortunately let in that own goal.

I agree, especially about Iniesta, but you forgot to mention one thing, luck played a big part of the game. The two goals we conceded was because of bad luck.

In the first goals mascherano was comming first to the ball or atleast close enough to make a clean tackle but in the last second he slipped and that gave athletic bilbao alot of space to utilise. In the 2nd goal... yeah, Mascherano should have kicked the ball for a throw in and than a own goal happend. On the other end of the pitch, we scored a goal because the defender kicked at his keeper IIRC and they might have had a penalty(but on the replayed it looked as if he was offside and the shirt pulling started outside of the pitch) and that Iniesta shot that you mentioned was another instance of luck that favoured us..

The Franchise wrote:Mixed feelings.

First of all, great game and congrats to Bilbao because they deserved at least a point. They played fantastically and it was no fluke that our goals didnt come from our usual way. Respect to them.

The pitch played its part, the rain made it impossible in the last 30 minutes to play how we would of wanted. I also read Bielsa has been known to waterlog training pitches in preparation for games with the possibility of rain. The man is a legend.

The result isnt a terrible one by any means, as I said in an earlier post we will do well to win and I would of took any kind of win.

What I am dissapointed about is Pep´s team selection. He knew they were going to press, that was obvious, so why play with so many midfielders and NOBODY running in behind?

Cuenca, Villa, Sanchez...someone.....

How was slowpoke Cesc and a fullback going to stretch the play and give us space?

As soon as I saw the line up I was that much more worried and it was no coincidence we didnt score via our usual play when you consider the line up, the rain and ability of Bilbao.

They have big, tall players who are great when everything is in front of them. Where was the players running in behind to open up the lines?

Didn't understand that at all.

Sanchez came on at 60, at that point the rain was incredible and you could clearly see the difficulties for players of his kind.

As I said, mixed feelings.

Exactly what I was thinking during the match, Messi was looking for the final pass quite often at the start and it looked like he really missed the inside runs of Pedro and Villa.

Also, this was one of Iniesta's worst games in recent memory

Lionel Messi wrote:
Exactly what I was thinking during the match, Messi was looking for the final pass quite often at the start and it looked like he really missed the inside runs of Pedro and Villa.

Also, this was one of Iniesta's worst games in recent memory

I dont agree. I thought that he was the our most threatening player, both messi and fabregas scored but their general play was pretty meh.

We should have won this. We lack punch. If messi doesn't score no one does.

We are lacking this guy at top form:


Iniesta was ok in general play, atrocious when it came to finishing. He should have scored at least one of the many good opportunitties he had. For me he was poor. He should have been subbed instead of Xavi, but I guess Xavi is still recovering.

Cesc has been quite poor when he has played as CM instead of AM...

I was also wondering why Pep didn't play someone going into space up front. IMO Villa should have started. Alexis Sanchez keeps unimpressing me, but he needs time to prove himself.

imo sanchez was more threatening than villa last night.. And honestly, what did you expect he was going to do last night with the pitch all soaked? Even messi was unimpressive, heck no one was really impressive last night(I thought that Iniesta was good but not so good that he wowed me).

Oh and imo the reason why xavi got subbed off and not iniesta was most likely because he is coming back from a injury and xavi is all about short passing and with the pitch like that

Simply put, the weather randomized the game's outcome. Best game I've seen in La Liga this season thus far.

As you guys mentioned, hard to pick a MOTM here but I'd say it was between Herrera & Amorebieta.

Its like they were playing in a pool. Loved to watch the match tho even tho we dropped points (on my birthday

Whats the deal with Villa? He needs to seriously step it up and honestly I have never really liked him as a LW. if he is going to come off the bench then play him as the striker and move Messi back to RW like he used to play

I doubt Messi will play at RW for awhile considering his effectiveness in the middle. What may be more likely is that Villa is in front of Messi and Messi at AM in 343.

Hello my fellow Cules !!!

On my first post I'd like to congrats Bilbao for the draw, what a game it was. It is natural for us "human" to be self-observed, we cules might feel that we should've won it. Putting myself in the other side of the road, I can imagine how irritating it must have felt for Bilbao to lose 2 points, even more, to lose a chance of winning against Barca in the last minute. The way I see it, we didn't lose two points last sunday, we won one. That leaves Messi with only one point left in debt

JD, I would say we played decent. We scored 2 goals in difficult conditions away to a very strong team. However, I think at both ends of he pitch we didn play well enough to win.

I dont agree at all with that commentary. When have you ever seen a Barca play give away the ball on purpose like you would with kicking it out for a throw? Because it wen wrong this time means the idea is bad?

Playing football in our way is a mindset which dictates what you do every moment your on the pitch, nothing changes and rightly so. You cant turn on and off your mindset.

I agree about Pique, he was unlucky because he was having an outstanding game for me. He has a tough time with Llorente and you could see how hard he had to work.