FC Barcelona won their first league match under Guardiola at the Vicente Calderon with a fighting 2-1 display. The hapiness of the victory was dampened by the scenes of Messi getting carried away in a streture towards the end after getting himself hurt by teh challenge of Ujfalausi. We have to wait for sometime inorder to access the injury. This is one guy whom we can't lose from this side. It was a spirited fight barca boys which gave them a truly deserved 2-1 win at the Vicente Calderon. As I wrote in the preview - FC Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid, it is always better to visit this stadium early in the season than late. Lionel Messi opened the scoring in the 13th minute before Raul garcia equalised. Pique restored the lead in the first half itself. With Abidal out of this trip, Maxwell was restored as the left Back. The rest of the defense remained the same with Pique, Puyol and Alves. The midfield as expected had Ineista, Xavi and Busquets. The attack had Messi, Pedro and Villa made up the attack.
UPDATE:
Latest Reports suggests that Messi may miss action for the next two weeks. It's considerably good news as we all feared much worse seeing his pain.
Messi and Pique puts Barca on path of victory
Messi played in the centre, while Villa moved to the left from teh start of first half. We had the Atletico defense scrambling as early as the 2nd minute when Messi played Villa in on the left. After that both teams looked a bit nervous in taking the initiative. Barca went into the lead in the 13th minute with Messi scoring once again. The move started with Villa playing the ball to Messi near the centre of Atletico Half, Messi released Villa with a great pass, Villa stunningly curved the ball past an on rushing keeper but ended hitting the post. But the action didn't stop there, Pedro picked up the rebound and played in Messi who put Barca in the lead with a wonderful finish. Barca seemed to have been content with the goal and there was not much action for sometime. In the 24th minute Messia had a decent chance to put Barca 2-0 ahead from a Alves cross but he shot high. The cross was going away from him and was a bit high, but with Messi we expect to see those end up in the back of the net. Barca was made to pay for that miss as Atletico equalised through Raul Garcia header from a corner. Valdes came out to meet the corner but was no where near and no one had Raul Garcia covered. In the 33rd minute Pique put Barca back in lead with a wonderfully well taken goal, that could put many of leading strikers in business to shame. Pique chested down Messi's corner at the far post before expertly blasting it into the back of net. In the 45th minute we had a good chance to go 3-0 ahaed, Xavi released Villa on the left but his cross to Pedro was a bit heavy otherwise that would have been a sure goal.
Barca Produced a solid defensivce display in second half
FC Barcelona looked more composed in the second half and made sure that Atletico was shut off the game. In the 49th minute Xavi's thunderous shot from outside the box was very well saved by Atletico custodian. From the resulting corner the goal keeper denied Pedro's shot from outside the box. After that the match started becoming a bit more physical, which basically was a surpise considering the size of players on the pitch. In the 73rd minute Villa had a great chance to round off the game but he shot high. As time passed everyone was nervous as we have seen many times that at the Vicente Calderon, a one goal lead may not be enough. Villa was denied twice by the goal keepr, one from outside the box and another inside thh box. In teh 86th minute de Gea denied Messi after a quickly taken Pique free kick put him clear on goal. But teh half ended with injury to Messi in the injury time.
All the focus now shifts to the extent of Messi's injury. He seemed to be in so much pain, let's pray taht it just a niggle. Coming back to the match, the team played well especially in the second half. In first half after taking the lead we tried to absorb pressure and that worked against us, but the second half tactics was perfect. Messi had a great start to the game but did fade a bit in the second half. Xavi and Alves were excellent throughout the match. Pique was a bit susceptible in defense but whenever he ventured forward it was a treat to watch . Iniesta had a great game, he may not have done anything much special in attack, but in defense he was brilliant. He covered for all his team-mates, especially in the right wing.