Barcelona players threw away a fantastic opportunity to put pressure on Madrid, and instead now will be fighting with Villareal to hold on to the second spot. Barcelona went ahead twice in the match only to see their inability to defend the aerial ball taking away two vital points. Rijkaard rightly didn't rush Messi to start and this gave Giovani a chance to start in the line up. Gudjonsen joined Xavi and Toure in midfield behind Ezquerra who till this match was looked as if abandoned by Rijkaard. Milito and Puyol joined with Abidal and Zambrotta in defense.Barcelona started the game in the best possible way when Eto scored off Giovani cross with just 62 seconds on the clock. Xavi played the ball to Giovani who placed the ball on his left ball to provide the best of crosses which duly met Eto's head. But after that Barcelona lookde pretty much confused in the defense and almost paid the price in the 5th minute when Recreativo failed to equalise. Then in the 11th minute Gudjonsen made an excellent run dribbling past defenders and overcoming tough challenges, but the final ball was interpreted. Then slowly Barcelona started giving all the possesion to Recreativo and it staretd telling when they started creating chances. That was rewarded with a very controversial goal when the linesman ruled that Valdes has spilled the ball across the line from a header from Ruben. The ball never crossed the line , but Recreativo deserved the goal for all the pressure they were able to create. Barcelona had a great chance to go ahead in the injury time of first half when Giovani was played through by Eto, but Recreativo Goal Keeper Sorrentino produced an excellent save.
Barcelona went again ahead in the start of second half when Eto prodeuced an excellent goal from outside the box. But as in the first half Barcelona looked lazy after the goal and Valdes has to make three excellent saves to prevent Recreativo from equalising. Then in the 64th minute Messi was brought in place of Giovanni. In the 68th minute Messi made a great run from the right which was stopped by a desperate defense. Then in the 69th minute Eto shot wide after a difficult one two with Ezquerra. Then in the 71st minute Barcelona defense was left napping and Recreativo scored thanks to huge mistake by Valdes. Then in the desperate dying moments Messi had a huge opportunity when Sorentino put his shot in the path of Messi, Messi should have shot himself rather than trying to cross to Eto. This result officially should have ended Barcelona's quest for La Liga title. the only positives where Eto's return to form and Gudjonsen's and Ezquerra's performance.