Barcelona 1 - 0 Levante: Eto’o grabs 3 points

By: Isaiah | April 30th, 2007

Well, we got 3 points, even if it turned out to be pretty much the hardest way we could do it while maintaining a clean sheet. 1-0 against a side as poor as Levante isn’t very reassuring, but the number of shots on goal (8) certainly suggest potency. It’s just that we can’t blaze over from point blank range like Messi did at the very end or give up chances like Valdés did in the 92nd.

The Good: 3 points and the fact that we attacked almost the entire time while controlling the ball (71% of possession). Messi was terrific in the second half and Puyol was everywhere most of the game. Zambrotta’s runs were good and rarely led to a counterattack via their left side. Molina was unbelievable in their goal, which is why the score wasn’t 4-0 or some such ass-kicking.

The Bad: Unfortunately, this is a much longer list than the good. The defense wasn’t particularly strong and against a better team would have allowed at least one goal, if not several. I don’t want to blame the back line too much, though, as the breakdown seemed to be in midfield where possession was given away far too casually. Ronaldinho was certainly not himself except for the occasional flick (like his nifty back heel that should have resulted in a handball call).

Barca’s finishing was, too put it mildly, shit. Messi blasting over from point blank range, all sorts of miscues in the box, and a series of silly giveaways in the attacking third combined to put pressure on the team throughout when they should have run away with the game, breaking Levante’s spirit by halftime. Not that I want to disparage the team’s performance all that much as, again, we did win and maintain our 1 point advantage over 2nd place Sevilla.

The ref was horribly inconsistent throughout, which was probably a little more aggravating for the Levante fans in the end as they lost, but Barcelona had a few penalty shouts and certainly a few fouls weren’t called in the second half. That said, Barcelona got basically all of the calls in the first half, to the point where I looked into my beer and mumbled something about karma. I’m not quite sure where I was going with that one, but it seemed appropriate at the time and we almost paid for it in the second half.

YouTube highlights of the game available here.

Final Thought: 2 goals in league 4 games this month is not good, but we’ll solve the issues; the proof is in the fact that we beat a stingy Getafe team 5-2 and Levante had to play a hell of a game just to lose.

Why run when you can fly?