A disappointing draw now means a must win game for Barcelona in Turkey
On paper, it was the most lopsided matches in the Europa League round of 16 when Barcelona played host against Galatasaray at the Camp Nou.
It certainly did not play out that way as the Catalans were stymied all match long and simply unable to unlock their defense. On loan from Barcelona, Iñaki Peña had a couple of outstanding saves to deny his parent club.
Xavi Hernandez rotated his side somewhat, resting Gerard Pique and playing Eric Garcia in his place. Nico Gonzalez started in place of Sergio Busquets and Memphis Depay got the nod over Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
While not bad players to rotate with at all, the team looked disjointed. Without Busquets, Barcelona struggle in transition as Busquets is still one of the best in getting the ball from a defender and starting a play. Despite his age, there isn’t a natural replacement for him on the team.
Given the lackluster performance in the first half, it came as no surprise to hear the Barcelona boss was upset and made it known to his players in the locker room during halftime.
The second half substitutions breathed some life into the team but it wasn’t enough to get a winner.
"“It’s not a good result, playing at home,” Xavi said in his post-match press conference. “In the second half, we have been something better but when you lower the intensity, you lower everything.“In the end of the second half, we have been better. We have divided more, we have played with pure wingers.”Source: Football España"
After the game, the players who spoke to the media said the result was a disappointing one but the only thing they can do is look at the game and analyze what went wrong.
Adama Traoré: "The 0-0 at the Camp Nou with everything we've generated isn't something to be happy about... We'll have to look at the game again to analyze what happened. We can't change what's happened, but we have 90 minutes to win there."
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) March 10, 2022
Perhaps Barcelona were complacent as Galatasaray seemed like an opponent who would cause little to no problem as they aren’t having a good domestic season. But they came in with a game plan, stuck to it and got a result out of it.
If there is anything for Barcelona to hang their hats on is they were in a similar situation heading into the second leg against Napoli and were able to put together one of their best performance of the season in Italy.
The second leg should be a somewhat different affair. With everything to play for, Galatasaray are going to have to come out and try to score, which means there will be space left to exploit. Barcelona will have to be ready to exploit that space and be clinical should they want to advance to the quarterfinals.