FC Barcelona put their rampaging train back on track after a small technical snag against Basel with an explosive performance against Real Valladoid. Real Valladoid could not find a single answer to the attacking powers of Barca and saw the host putting six goals past them. Eto scored four times in the first half, Gudjonsen and Henry compleetd the scoring list. The surprising fact about this season is whenever we think FC barcelona has reached their highest level of play they simply raise the bars. The performance is yet to improve as Xavi didn't have a great game yesterday and Iniesta was out injured. Guardiola looks like have decided Puyol as Left back in the absence of Abidal, and he will not regret that decision. Alves, Marquez, Pique and Puyol formed the defense ahead of Valdes. Toure was slotted in as the defensive midfielder. Gudjonsen and Xavi paired to be the creative heads in the midfield. Henry, Eto and Messi formed the attacking trio.It was Real Valldoid who had the first atatck of the match.In the 2nd minute Valladoid free kick from the right corner of box was collected well by Valdes in the second attempt. That woke up Barca and they replied immediately with Gudjonsen heading high from a great cross from Xavi in the 8th minute. In the 12th minute Eto entered into the scoring chart; Daniel Alves played a sensational ball in behind the defense, Eto rounded off the defenders and scored through the legs of Goal Keeper Sergio. In the 22nd minute Marquez guarded ball well to Valdes hands after a great pass put Valladoid in an atatcking position. In the 23rd minute Valdes had to make an great intervention to stop Valladoid from having the shot after a Pique mistake. FC Barcelona looked like a bit rattled by the much more crowded valladoid midfield and was giving away ball cheaply. In the 26th minute Messi sets up on an excellent run on the counter; Messi then provided a great pass to Eto whose shot was well stopped by an advancing Goal Keeper Sergio. In the 30th minute Etos scored again to calm Barca nerves after an excelelnt all round play. Messi provided a great pass to Eto in the edge of box; who lobs the ball over the defense to Henry; the resulting shot from Henry was saved bu Sergio but the rebound fell perfectly for Eto to finish. In the 36th minute Henry should have made it 3-0 but his first touch on an excellent pass from Messi was pathetic which gave time to Segio to block the ball. In the 40th minute Henry wasted another great chance from another excellent pass from Eto. But for all the disappointment Eto made it 3-0 in the next minute after rounding off Goal keeper from an excellent pass from Messi.In the 44th minute Eto made it four for the night with the easiest of finish.It was once again excellent play from Messi who run past defenders; Messi shot hit the defender and fell perfectly for Eto.
In the second half everyone expected FC Barcelona to slowed down the tempo. To an extent they did but they didn't abandon the idea of attacking play. In the 70th minute Marquez was taken off and Ceceres replaced him. In 72nd minute Gudjonsen brought the match back to life with an excellent finish after the defense gave the ball stupidly to Henry who placed it to Gudjonsen. In the next minute Gudjonsen was taken off and was replaced by Keita. In the 76th minute Eto was taken off and in came Hleb. The Belarusian started getting involved in every move from the right. Hleb was instrumental in the sixth goal after playing a neat one-two with Messi he squared the ball to Henry for easiest of tappings.
This was an excellent performance and it came on a day when the midfield general Xavi was having an off-day. That shows the variety of atatcking options. The only thing Guardiola have to be careful is that to make sure that they don't get carried away with these results. They should be still win some games very tough and ugly.