Barcelona Baffled, Along With Europe
By Andy Pearson
courtesy of FC Barcelona facebook page
To say that this season has been a normal season in European football would not exactly be the most correct statement. Over in Germany, Wolfsburg has fought their way up to second place, behind giants Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, find themselves in a relegation spot of 17th place out of 18 teams.
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In England, Manchester United started this season how they ended last season, dreadfully. However, now they are on a roll and have fought their way up to 3rd place. Over in London, Tottenham recently overcame the odds and beat Chelsea by a score of 5-3 at White Hart Lane. Things are just as crazy in Spain.
La Liga has been crazy as well. Real Madrid started off to a slow start but have recently picked up their pace and currently hold the top spot in the league. Atletico Madrid, the reigning champions, have held a steady pace and currently sit in 3rd. Valencia have improved greatly over a disappointing season last year and teams that had great years last year, Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao, are struggling this season as both teams are in the bottom half of the table. Another big surprise this year would be the team of FC Barcelona.
Barcelona have won most of their games like they have been expected to, but some of the games have not been in comfortable fashion, they have been struck with a transfer ban, and the team are not taking advantages of crucial moments. One of those moments came in their last game against Real Sociedad. Earlier that day, Real Madrid had lost their game against Valencia, thus giving Barcelona a much needed break in order to make up points on their hated rivals. However, the team was not able to do so and remain in second place, with a possibility of being behind Madrid by 4 points.
Throughout most of the game, Barcelona was able to play their legendary way of controlling the ball and held most of the possession. However, no matter how much they had the ball, and no matter how many shots they had, they were unable to put the ball in the Sociedad net. Their shots did not see dangerous to the opposition goalie and they also seemed like they were sloppy at moments. Overall it was not the Barcelona people are used to seeing.
Enrique thought it would be a good idea to keep both Messi and Neymar on the sidelines for the first half of this game, and that decision came back to hurt him deeply, and may affect his chances of staying at the club. If Madrid is able to win their game in hand, they will be up on Barcelona by 4 points, whereas if Barcelona were able to win this crucial game, the lead would only be a max of 1 point in favor of Madrid. Barcelona needs to pull it together for their next league game, and a little bit of help from Madrid losing on their end, in order to make a charge for the league silverware.
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