Breathtaking Barcelona

A few days ago I wrote that there was not much to choose between Barcelona and Arsenal. I said that both teams were excellent and that it would be a close tie. Looking at the 2-2 result at the Emirates on Wednesday evening you might think I got it absolutely right.

Difficult

I also said that Arsenal would have as much possession as Barcelona and that would make it difficult for the current champions who are used to dominating the ball.

Anyone who saw the game will know that, unfortunately as usual, my punditry and ability to predict games was about as wrong as it could have been.

Breath

I have just about got my breath back after watching Barcelona in the first twenty minutes of the game. I’m not sure I have ever seen a team play as well as they did in that opening period. How they were not at least 4-0 up at half-time I have no idea.

After about twenty minutes the possession statistics appeared on the screen and showed that Barcelona had dominated with 79% of the possession. That must have been wrong because the only Arsenal player to touch the ball in that first twenty minutes was Manuel Almunia, and he didn’t have it for that long!

Intricacy

The pace and power and intricacy of Barcelona’s play was astonishing. There is not a team on the planet that could have lived with them, it is as simple as that.

An admiring Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, compared their football to art.

“Barca’s display was art. It was a great football night and I don’t deny we were outplayed most of the game. I have to say we played against a great team who were dominant in the early part of the game and that’s where we were lucky because they had a lot of early chances.”

Barcelona’s boss Pep Guardiola was equally in awe of his side’s performance.

“I am proud of my team. We won the Champions League last season but we never played like that away from home. Never.”

Right from the back of the side, although the two centre-backs Puyol and Pique and keeper Valdes hardly touched the ball before half-time, Barcelona were absolutely on song.

Threat

The full backs, Alves and Maxwell, were a constant threat and found themselves in acres of space time after time. The midfield of Pedro, Xavi, Busquets and Keita played a style of passing football that was as effective as it was mesmerising. Last season Sir Alex Ferguson said that Xavi ‘had never given the ball away in his life.’ That certainly continued at the Emirates.

Lionel Messi, playing just off Ibrahimovic, had a quiet game by his own standards but still had two early attempts on goal and ran through the Arsenal side as if they weren’t there at all.

Space

Ibrahimovic kept finding himself in huge amounts of space without seeming to make particularly complicated movements. He reminds me of Berbatov in so much as he doesn’t seem to be a workaholic, but still manages to be a great striker.

When Barcelona had the ball they were magnificent. When they didn’t, they were even better. Arsenal never had any time on the ball and they were hassled and harried into giving the ball away constantly.

Lucky

Wenger knows how lucky Arsenal were to come out of the game with a draw and he might just feel that this could be their year, especially with Puyol and Pique missing the next game. After twenty minutes and then again after an hour when Ibrahimovic put them 2-0 up, it looked like a matter of how many Barcelona would score.

It is possible that they might regret not finishing the job off, but if they play at 50% of the level they achieved in the first half on Wednesday, they will be fine.