Barcelona 2, Inter-Milan 0 (This is how we do it)

By: Cameron | November 24th, 2009

Pique Goal
This shirt is so clean! Look at it. So excited!

Disclaimer: Everyone must not read this post until they have clicked this. Only now, can you proceed.

An imperious team performance by our men in Blaugrana today saw some vivacious attacking football that had Inter on their heels all evening long. Some good saves by Julio Cesar prevented by what all accounts (save the score line) was a rout. A singular tense moment in the first half, caused by you know who (Valdes) saw Inter’s only real chance of the game floundered. We were not even put off by our game by the absence of two of our biggest stars Ibrahimovic and Messi. By the way we played this evening, as a team, you wouldn’t even recognize their absence, which is how we should be playing every game.

Indeed, it appears that during his reign, Pep always finds a way to motivate the lads to do their best when it is absolutely needed: Barça 2-0 Madrid, Barça 5-2 Lyon, Barça 4-0 Bayern, Barça 6-2 Madrid, Barça 1-1 Chelsea, Barça 4-1 Athletic, Barça 2-0 Manchester. Now you can add Barça 2-0 Inter. We sit on top of Group F now, and as it stands, a draw against Dynamo Kiev will see us through to the knock out rounds.

Many of us (including me) were worried how the team would perform given out astounding (at least for us Barça fans at the moment) number of injuries and mishaps that had befallen our team in the lead up to the game. Abidal, who had H1N1 made a miraculous recovery and our steam engine on the left looked like he had been fine all along. Most unfortunately, the Yayaminator did not recover in time, as he had also contracted the virus discovering a new species of human relatives. Ibra and Messi were both out with muscle injuries, but both recovered enough to make the bench. Them appearing would be based on how our team was performing during the game, which we all would see was definitely not needed.

So diving into his magical formation making machine hat, Josep rolled out with this starting XI: Valdes, Alves, Puyol, DJ Pique, Abidal, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, “Golden Boot” Keita, Pedroad Runner, Henry. The lineup looked like this:

Valdes
A – Puyol – Pique – Abidal
L – Busquets
V – Xavi – Iniesta – Keita
E —————–Pedro
S – Henry

Pep gave Alves the responsibility of being everywhere and nowhere at once, which he did with his usual gusto, filling in as Messi and himself. He had free reign the entire evening, and I am appalled Jose Mourinho didn’t do more to limit the damage he produced on the night. Bombing run after bombing run, then sprinting to the other end instantly to break up attacks. To combat the stagnant nature of play seen in the first leg in the midfield, Pep had Iniesta and Xavi play next to each other, in addition the hard working nature of Keita ensured that in addition to having an extra outlet for Xaviesta to feed the ball to, Keita would close down space in the midfield and win possession back. This false 4-3-3 would allow then any of the three midfielders to advance up the pitch in support of attack. This was used to perfection for the second goal, which we shall soon see.

The opposing side consisted of: Cesar, Samuel, Lucio, Cambiasso, Chivu, Maicon, Stankovic, Motta, Zanetti, Milito, The Lion Samuel Eto’o.

Thank you Samu

Eto’o was received with a hero’s welcome upon coming back to Camp Nou, but once the whistle to begin the match was blown, he was treated like enemy, which he now is. Inter made a mistake playing in white, as we have a habit of beating teams in white like an unruly child in need of discipline. And oh boy did we discipline Inter in the ways of proper football today.

It was instantly apparent from the get go that Inter had made a fatal mistake that was to plague them throughout the duration of this game, they did not man mark Xavi or Iniesta. This immediately became apparent when the fluidity of Barcelona was at its top within minutes.

With the Barcelona engine flowing, Inter were powerless to stop us going forward, and fouls accumulated quickly, with Thiago Motta seeing the yellow card in the 18th minute for an accumulation of fouls by Inter. This constant pressure resulted in a corner in the 10th minute. Our Xavi floats in the corner. . .Henry with a man on him somehow (it was a very good play by Henry) got a flick on. DJ Pique was standing at the back post, being literally hugged by our former man Thiago Motta. While Motta was attempting to celebrate the fact both men had similar hair styles, Pique managed to get a foot out and hit the ball well past Julio Cesar. The exuberance shown from this young man, such pure passion for his club shows the leadership Pique needs to be a future captain of this team, which he will be. From then it was easy street and pickings.

Pedro meep-meep!

Pedroad Runner was all over the place, showing flair and dancing his way through the Inter defense. He had Maicon’s number on this night, beating him a number of times. His constant youthful movement befuddled Inter’s backline, already pressurized by the rest of our midfielders making incisive runs into the box.

Fouls were traded off and on for the next bit, then in the 26th minute, it was vintage Barça at our very best.

Abidal wins the ball in the attacking half, and sprays the ball out left to Pedroad, he drops it off to the halfway line where Biscuits is waiting, and Pedroad begins his meep-meep! up the flank. Biscuits and Keita exchange a 1-2 whereupon Busquets finds a waiting Xavi on another one touch pass. Xavi, from the center circle, brings the ball forward and dumps it to Keita who one time’s it back to Biscuits again. Biscuits then finds Iniesta, who is sitting in the zone with yards of space to operate in (a death sentence for any defense) dribbles up to find a surging Xavi, the Xaviesta complex at work again, because along all this time is a certain Brazilian who is making the run behind the defense. It was beautiful to watch. The instant Iniesta receives the ball, Alves knows instinctively where to go, and what will happen when he gets there. Xavi releases him with no one on Alves who is suddenly is in so much space he could have opened up a real estate company. He one times a cross across the box, where Pedroad Runner was waiting patiently the entire time, and in a flurry of rotating legs finds himself on the end of a perfect cross which he volleys somewhat awkwardly past Cesar for a 2-0 lead.

You could see Inter was deflated, and we were running full of confidence. For the rest of the half and for the rest of the game, we looked threatening, and were unlucky not to score with a Keita header (45) and a Xavi header (54), AND an Alves FK (68). Although, this isn’t to say we came out in the second half with the same cutting edge and relentless attacking intent we had in the first. The tempo slowed down considerably, and we were happy to pass Inter to death, which is what happened. 66% possession, up from 61% at the half says all you need to know about the second half.

The only two half chances for Inter came on a long range Diego Milito shot which Valdes saved well and another one of those uh-oh! moments from Valdes. A simple back pass from Abidal goes to Valdes, who has a horrific first touch, I mean, this is a Gudjohnsen like touch. With Eto’o? closing down quickly, Valdes slides and clears the ball straight to Stankovic who thankfully skies the chip shot attempt. Valdes, one time that fucker out of there to midfield! What are you doing trying to take a touch with two opposing players within 10 yards of you? Be smarter, man.

Enough kudos cannot be said about Abidal, one of my favorite players on this team. Recovering from H1N1 and starting tonight, he put in a brilliant effort, and never missed a beat coming back from sickness. Effective supporting the attack, and brilliant in defense, he limited Maicon’s influence on the game tremendously. The duo of Pedro and Abidal kept Inter’s secret weapon at bay and on the back heel, isolating Milito and Eto’o up front, the latter of whom had a woeful showing overall.

Henry is not good enough to start on this team at the moment I am afraid. He is the one player who stood out to me as unimpressive this evening. His best moment of the game is when he ran with Eto’oesque fury at the Inter defense, forcing Julio Caesar to put the ball out for a Barça throw in early in the second half, which was justifiably greeted with great cheers. Other than that, he did nothing, save the assist to Pique. Those are probably two of maybe four or five positives things he did the entire evening. He’s not used to playing as a forward in the Barcelona system, and it showed tonight, and with Pedro in such great form (10 goals in all competitions thus far), I wouldn’t mind seeing Henry relegated to the bench as a super sub for the time being.

Busquets did a good job tonight. Following the KIS principle (keep it simple), Busquets became the foul magnet we all know him so well to be, getting players like Motta into yellow card territory early. Easy passes, and not acting like he was Iniesta ensures that slowly but surely, should something horrible ever befall the Yayaminator (like a transfer), Busquets could be our DM of the future. He’s still rough around the edges though, and his full maturity will be realized in a couple seasons.

A small side note, Jonathan dos Santos, although just for a couple minutes, made his first Champions League appearance replacing Iniesta in the 90th minute.

Onwards we go, to the Clasico this weekend. The big kahuna. I will most definitely be cutting my holiday stay at home short to come back to campus to watch our heroes pimp slap an once again overconfident Madrid side. Everyone will be banking on them as their top man Lolando (the kid makes me giggle) makes his return to action after a two month absence with an injured ankle. With their individually talented but gooey collective squad, I look for a similar result this weekend to the one we achieved last year at Camp Nou, albeit we won’t leave it as late this time. With Messi and Ibra, both rested and rearing to go, along with Yayaminator, look for a fully fit squad ready to take the lead back where we rightfully belong, at the top of the table. Visca el Baça.