Champion's League Game Report: Stuttgart - Barcelona

Dangerous Animals - Arctic Monkeys

“Awww they only show the Barcelona game? I hate watching them, so boring. Oh well.” Notebook, pen, the usual. What’s that empty half of stadium. Is that Molinaro?

Stuttgart: Lehman – Celozzi, Tasci, Delpierre, Molinaro – Gebhart, Trasch, Khedira, Hleb – Cacau, Pogrebnyak
Barcelona: Valdes – Puyol, Marquez, Pique, Maxwell – Y.Toure, Xavi, Busquets – Iniesta, Ibrahimovic, Messi

 Champion’s League games always start the same way (with exception of last week’s Bayern-Fiorentina): everybody gets a feel for the ball, the goalkeepers take a full minute to take a goal-kick, one of the players falls in the box, a couple of corners and camera focuses on the respective coaches. Ibra does twenty step-overs to finally loose the ball, Messi falls in the box (told you), Xavi gets a corner kick, Stuttgart applies a high pressure, Pogrebnyak and Toure fight each other at the midfield, Puyol does all the defensive work that is missing from Busquets, Messi dribbles Trasch, Tasci and Khedira all at once and Hleb wishes he was on the other side of the field. The Stuttgart midfield is very mobile but retains enough physicality to effectively pressure Xavi and co. Barca on the other hand try their best to slow the tempo down to let their individualities do the rest. We have to wait until the twentieth minute to see the serious things get under way. First, Marquez gets a yellow for almost decapitating Khedira. Stuttgart, whose players always give a variety of options to the ball carrier, try a couple of crosses and start to believe while Barca starts to loose control of the ball. Their defence feels the pressure. After Puyol (everywhere tonight) and Pique head out the first attempts, Khedira delivers a magnificent ball to Cacau who beats Puyol and Valdes at the same time. 1-0, 25 ^th minute. The stadium erupts, the commentators remain speechless, really, Barcelona down one? A big smile appears upon my face.

The next minutes are chaotic: Iniesta gets his first cross in, the midfield is chopped in two, Hleb dribbles Puyol, Messi misses his second pass of the night, Pique is guilty of a handball, Molinaro continues his recital and Ibra doesn’t see the ball. The Germans miss the second goal on more than one occasion: 1- Cacau chases slow Marquez who trips himself, the cross is low and dangerous but Puyol covered well (30^th) 2- Pogrebnyak launches Cacau, behind whom Pique, Puyol and Maxwell (and even further behind Marquez) sprint, who unleashes a bullet toe–kick, straight at Valdes (32^nd). 3- After bringing the whole Blaugrana defence along with him, Pogrebnyak unleashes a dangerous mid height shot that finds Valdes on its trajectory (40^th). Right before that, Messi had given Lehman a run for his money with a shot (originally off target) that, having been touched by the German veteran, leisurely continued its path toward the goal, only to hit the post (39^th). In the meanwhile Gross’ men had tried every combination in the book (almost efficiently as we have seen), Busquets had looked like an evil magician, Pogrebnyak had header out three corners, Pique had kicked the ball out of bounds to relieve his team and finally Marquez had gotten a piece of Hleb’s jersey after being overtaken (foul to which Guardiola responded simply by putting his hands on his face and sighing). Molinaro cracks one last cross, Marquez gives out one last elbowing. The half time is whistled as the crowd cheers.

61% - 39% possession for Barcelona, yet 1-0 for the home team. “I’m finally going to be able to nag all those ridiculously annoying Barcelona supporters.”

The home team starts the second half with the same intentions, Molinaro intercepts the tenth Busquets pass, Ibrahimovic gets a corner, Toure is not there and Marquez commits another foul because he’s too slow. Barcelona switch gear. First monopolize the ball, then send it in the box. Pique heads it down to Ibra at the penalty spot, shot, Lehman save, shot again, goal, 52^nd. Stuttgart’s dream will have lasted thirty minutes. The rest is a lesson: the Catalans play ball in their own half, Stuttgart is tactically too smart to let themselves push up too far, so nothing happens. Guardiola doesn’t want to lose the game so he puts Milito for Marquez (good call). He also doesn’t want to score anymore so he puts Henry for Toure. Stuttgart try their best to get back on the attack, with Cacau stretching the defence, Molinaro crossing (again), with a good balance between short and long passes. Puyol closes Cacau down, Pique reads Hleb’s game, Lehman becomes blind on a cross, Ibra controls with his hand, turns shoots, Molinaro saves on his line (with his upper arm of course) (72^nd). 

From there on Barcelona feels contempt with a draw. The game dies. Pique to Milito, to Pique, to Puyol, to Milito, to Valdes, to Puyol, to Pique, to Xavi, to Busquets, back to Milito, so on so forth. By the 80^th minute Busquets has had two chances of becoming a serious contender to this year’s Oscar for best (immature) performance. Read: small foul, I stay on the ground, require the game to stop, scream head in the ground, hold my ankle, attract all my teammates, make the referee call the medics but as soon as the little people-carrier appears I stand up (moaning) and obviously take five minutes to get off the field (as soon as I am off the field though, I immediately call the ref for my return on the field and when the permission is given, I run back quite normally). I will not describe the second instance (I stay down until I realize no one notices me) as deeply as this one but you get the point. Fabregas’ dreamland (hint hint?). Iniesta falls some more, Khedira gets more cramps, Molinaro puts a low cross but Marica shoots straight at Valdes. Pique, to Puyol, to Milito, to Valdes, to Puyol. One last free kick for the home team, straight to Valdes again. 1-1 final score. It won’t be a surprise for Barcelona to win 5-0 at home for the return game (see Lyon last year), but oh how I can’t wait for Barcelona to loose this year (it will happen) (I hope).

Grades

Stuttgart – 7: Yes because not many teams have held head to the “magnificient” Barca. Good pressure in the first half, the game plan got a little scruffy during the second half, especially with the Blaugrana’s monopolization of the ball.

Lehman – 3: One good save that didn’t prevent the goal, one journalist dead, one Karate move on Puyol, one horrible aerial exit, just another normal day for the forty year old. Celozzi – 5: Probably tetanised by the team in front, the young german did his match without really showing anything (bad or good) Tasci – 7: Contained Ibrahimovic remarkably except on that one occasion Delpierre – 7: Contained Ibrahimovic remarkably except on that one occasion Molinaro – 8: Excellent game for the ex-Juventino, valiant defending and attacking, generous, containing Messi, the Italian did it all (even make the Catalans detestable). Gebhart – 7: 11km (8.68 miles), that’s running from Wall Street to Columbia University, and he only played eighty minutes. Khedira – 7: Solid in the first half, good at breaking the Barcelona plays, overwhelmed during the second where he saw almost nothing of the ball. Trasch – 6: Full of good will, his technical limitations were his biggest problem tonight Hleb – 7 then 4: Admirable in the first half for getting back at those he left last year with precise passes, good movement and incredible presence, disappointing in second half where he showed that he was still scared of the Spaniards. Cacau – 8: Brought demise to the Barcelone defense by himself, with a splendid goal on top, continued his genuine and generous efforts all throughout the game. Pogrebnyak – 5: Gave as much as he had to give, and that’s what counts most.
.Kuzmanovic, Marica, Rudy – 5: Did they even touch the ball?

Barcelona – 1 then 6: Transparent first half because of an excess in confidence, did the job in the second. It’s just so boring to watch when they don’t want to score.

Valdes – 6: Did the job well, although he didn’t have to do that much anyways (all the shots were straight at him). Overrated. Puyol – 10: When Carles isn’t playing central defence, he still has to. Absolutely gigantic tonight (he played for Marquez as well), didn’t even pick a fight with Lehman for that tackle. Marquez – 2: Absolutely ridiculous, not even one good long pass. Pique – 6: Not the greatest game for Gerard yet always manages to give a sense of calm and pose to the team. Maxwell – 5: Boring Toure – 4: As I said before, Yaya was not there tonight. Busquets – 0: Might have done some good in the game, but who cares, absolutely horrendous mentality. Made some friends in Germany for sure. Xavi – 5: Nothing spectacular tonight, which means boring. Iniesta – 5: Nothing spectacular tonight, which means boring. Messi – 7: Only one who kept his game constant during the whole game, Lionel could obviously score whenever he wants to, if there weren’t so many opponents in the box (and Molinaro). Also getting a taste for playing as real 10? Ibrahimovic – 2 or 9: At the end of the first half I was impatient to unleash my wrath on how useless he was to Barcelona: too slow, too predictable, too physical; on how he isn’t good if he isn’t the center of the team. And then he scores the equalizer to save his team from a delicate situation. The Ibra paradox continues. .Henry – 5: Boring .Milito – 6: It’s not very hard to do better than Marquez.