In the early morning of Beijing time today (11th), the first leg of the Europa League 1/8 final was contested. Leipzig and Sparta Moscow were cancelled, with Lyon, Frankfurt, Sevilla, Glasgow Rangers, Braga and Atalanta winning against their opponents respectively, while Barca, who were at home, drew 0-0 with Galatasaray.
The first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals was cancelled in leipzig against Sparta Moscow.
Galatasaray, a team that didn't seem to cause too much trouble for Barca, eventually drew 0-0 with Barca at Camp Nou, even if Barca boss Xavi let Barca's 6 strikers take turns, but there was no result, and this game became the only game in this round of the Europa League without a goal.
Galatasaray has not been in good form this season, currently 32 points behind the leaders in the Turkish Super League, legendary manager Trim has been fired, and it is currently Pep Guardiola's assistant Domenec Torrent who has taken over the team for 2 months, which is also a meeting for Barca. Although Barca's match against Turkey is the Europa League quarter-final match, the local media generally believes that Galatasaray is an easier team to deal with than Napoli, and even the fans who come to camp at Camp Nou have not played against Napoli.
For the sake of ensuring the physical fitness of the team, but also because the opponent is indeed not strong, Xavi's starting lineup is difficult to call the full main force, first of all, the two veteran captains Busquets and Pique did not start, which made people feel that Barca did not take the Turkish team seriously, Nico and De Jong, Pedri formed a three-midfielder, and Eric Garcia replaced Pique and Araujo to play the center-back combination. In view of the recent good performance of Memphis Depay, Xavi made him start for the first time after injury, but did not let Felan Torres play as a substitute, but let the two play together, while Adama Traore was alone on the right.
Galatasaray is a team that is not good at steals, which is a good match for Barca, who is good at possession, Barca seems to be able to take down their opponents without much effort, after the game began, Barca did quickly control the midfield, and formed a siege on the Galatasaray penalty area, and even the scene of the game was like a handball game.
But as the game progressed, everyone found a problem with Barca, that is, there was no shot on the offensive, Barca did not get the first shot until the 26th minute, Memphis's free kick was quite threatening, but was saved by Ignacchi Penha, it is worth mentioning that the hero Penha is the third goalkeeper of the team that Barca loaned to Galatasaray in the winter.
Throughout the first half, Barca did not create obvious scoring opportunities, with only Memphis' two brilliant shots being saved by Peña. Barca rely too much on Adama on the right, while Ferran on the middle does not pose any threat. Galatasaray actually had a brilliant shot from Aktukoglu after connecting Deste and De Jong.
Barca's lack of attack in the first half, the lack of tacit understanding after rotating players is one of the reasons, but the most important reason is that the team's attitude is not correct enough, the light enemy believes that the opponent can easily take it, so the team's offensive rhythm is slow, there is less running without the ball, and everyone is playing lazy balls that do not try their best, which is conducive to the opponent's defense. Barca's performance in the first half was very unsatisfactory to Xavi, and the Barca boss criticized the team's lack of rhythmic tension in the first half.
In order to correct the attitude of the team and change the organization of the team, Xavi replaced the veteran Busquets and Pique at the beginning of the second half, and replaced Felan Torres with Dembele. Xavi had to score more goals in the first leg, as the second leg against Galatasaray would take place 2 days before the battle of the century against Real Madrid, and Barca could not put 100% of their strength into that game, and if they did not score in this game, it would threaten Barca's promotion situation.
Barca's overall attack improved in the second half, and after Peña again saved Busquets' header, Xavi decided to replace Memphis with Aubameyang, who was actually a winger rather than a centre-forward, as did Ferran Torres, who had scored into the box 20 times before Aubameyang's 62nd minute appearance, but none of the centre-forwards could shoot from close range.
However, Aubameyang also failed to get a shot inside the box, and Xavi gave Luc de Jong the last 10 minutes as was customary, but Luc De Jong did not perform a miracle this time. Debatable, Luc De Jong replaced Adama, with one of the best header players replacing one of the best crosses, and when both wingers Adama and Dembele were present, the centre-forward was Memphis or Aubameyang, perhaps giving Luc De Jong more time would have worked better, but Xavi is certainly not a coach who likes to score only from the header.
In the second half, a long-range shot by Frenki De Jong was saved, and another shot that was blocked by the goalpost was Barca's best chance. Barca failed to score this game because it wasted 45 minutes of the first half and because the frequent forward movements in the second half were not precise enough. The current situation for Barca is a bit sinister, with Real Madrid not playing next week and Barcelona going to the traditional Hell Stadium to try to win Galatasaray first and then away to Real Madrid in 2 days, which is a game that Xavi really wants to win.
Wen | Liang Hongye
Edit | Peppery Soup