Real Murcia has surprised many by being in first half of the table. But their dreams of surprising barcelona was blown away by a resurgent Barcelona side,which looked like their old self in the second half. But still Murcia players walked away with their head head high. Especially in the first half they did make a match to the renowned Barcelona lineup.As expected there was not much surprise in the Barcelona Lineup.Marquez moved forward to take up the defensive midfielder role. Puyol and Thuram started in the Back along with Zambrotta and sylvinho as full backs. Marquez was parterned in the midfield by Xavi and Gudjonsen. Bojan joined Eto and Henry to form the attacking trio. Both the teams started the match pretty brightly. Barcelona started the attack pretty decently with Eto shooting twice in the spate of two minutes. The second attempt (even though the angle was tight) was kept away by an alert Murcia keeper Notario, who had a wonderful game. Murcia was not the one to be backed down, that too that early in the match. They responded well with Valdes making a wonderful stop of De Lucas attempt. On 13th minute Xavi played a wonderful ball to Henry, which should have resulted in the first goal but only for the linesman to flag a non existent offside. Slowly, Murcia was settling down in the defense and Barcelona found it difficult to penetrate the same. The dead lock was broken in the 27th minute when Marquez sent Zambrotta down the right flank and the Italians wonderful cross was met by an excellent finish by none other than Gudjonsen. The finish may not have looked exquisite but Gudjonsen did really well to control a difficult cross from Zambrotta. Its always good to have a natural Right Back down that side, Rijkaard are you listening? The goal might have settled the nerves in Barcelona side, but there was not clear cut chance until the 42nd minute when an alert Murcia defense blocked out Puyol from getting his second goal of the season off an eto pass.
The second half also started in the same fashion of the first half. But the turning point of the match came at the 50 th minute when Valdes did well on a one on one situation against Baiano, who was played onside by Thuram. If Murcia has equalised that moment, then the fate of the match may be different. Valdes looks to me as one of the best when it comes to one on one situation, its only his positioning sense when the an aerial ball is sent in to the box make him vulnerable. The attempt by Baiano was the wake up call Barcelona players needed and they responded well. In the 51st minute dribbled into the box from the left but to see his his team mates failing to get into the end of a wonderful cross. In the 53rd minute Henry once again dribbled past a defender from the left, this time Bojan received his cross to register his 4th Goal for Barcelona. Eto did well there to pull one defender away by moving into the centre of the box. Withe the two goal advantage Barcelona was in full control of the match. There was a flurry of attempts by Barcelona players on the goal. In the 55 the minute Notario brought an excellent save to deny Xavi. In the 66th minute Eto was denied off an Henry pass, next minute Bojan rounded off defenders after a good run but to see his shot go wide.
Barcelona's persistence was rewarded in the 77th minute when Eto scored off an Henry pass whch was set up by an exquisite pass from sylvinho. In the 85th minute Eto set up zambrotta after an excellent 1-2 with Iniesta only to see Zambrotta being denied by the crossbar. In the 87th minute Eto rounded off the good performance by scoring off an excellent setup by Dos Santos. But the best moment of the match was when the crowd gave a standing ovation to Pedrito, the debutent (who got a chance because Esquerra was sick). His first touch was welcomedby huge roar in the stadium, I just loved it.
The best player for the Murcia side was their Goal Keeper Notario, if it was not for him they would have lost by some more oal. For the Catalan side , Henry was their best player. He looked so confident and he is getting back to his best.
The Goals of the match