CHAPTER 301: Barcelona 4 - 0 Sevilla

Alternative Title: ¡INIESTAR!
2nd Alternative Title: Iniesta, the Magician, the MVP, the Maestro
3rd Alternative Title: Barcelona’s Final Phase Begins With A Big Bang


Positives

• Win obtained by Barcelona.

• And it’s a big win! 4 goals scored, and Barcelona are off into the second phase of the Tourmalet in a great, big way!

• That’s now the 7th straight Liga victory in a row.

• That’s also now the 7th straight clean sheet achieved by the team.

• As stated earlier Barça begins this 2nd stage of the Torumalet in a big way. The magnitude of the victory and the performance put out by the team sends a big signal to the rivals. This is a really big positive point for Pep and the team.

• Overall an excellent game from Barça, they thoroughly dominated the opposition and Sevilla didn’t do much to earn their point/s.

• INIESTA.
  This game was simply his showcase. And perhaps his best game so far in a Barcelona shirt. Firstly, he scored that cracking great goal and it came at such an early period of the game (!), real quick.
  Also assisted and involved in the other 3 goals.
  Besides that, he was great in passing, control, attack, buildup and vision. Iniesta was virtually everywhere for Barça’s attacking play and he dictated Barça’s rhythm in both attack and in midfield.
  

• Samuel Eto’o scored his 27th goal of the season. That goal was a ‘being at the right place at the right time’ goal.

• A big positive point for Eto’o following up from the point above is that Eto’o now has beat his personal best of goals scored in a season in La Liga. His highest before this was scoring 26 goals in the 2005-2006 season and right now in the current season he has scored 27 (one higher than his previous best). He’s on a good course to perhaps score 30 goals overall in the league this season!

• Xavi scored a fantastic long shot and also adds up his own goal tally for the season.

• Henry scored another good goal (excellent finishing) and also adds his goal tally.

• The goals scored:
  
  • all goals were excellent,
  • fantastic buildup, passing and teamplay involved in the 2nd (Iniesta-Xavi-Iniesta-Eto’o), 3rd (Henry-Eto’o-Iniesta-Xavi) and 4th goals,
  • each of the goals were quick goals, scored at early times of the game’s period that surely made and gave Barça a big advantage (game wise and psychological wise), serving up Barça able to dictate the game thanks to the goals. The 1st and the 2nd goals were scored early on in the 1st half and the 3rd and forth goals were scored early on in the 2nd half.

• Some good run of play from the team, once from the 54th minute until the 56th minute, and the other from the 66th minute until the 67th minute.

• Some good ball recoveries; Abidal made one on the 27th minute, and Xavi made one on the 51st minute. Xavi’s recovery launched a Barça attack that ended with Marquez’s long shot that hit the crossbar.

• Another positive point to state is probably that by this stage and the points being obtained Barcelona is closing on the league title.

Negatives

• Alves getting yellow card.

• Abidal getting yellow carded.

• Samuel Eto’o. What the f-ck with the finishing. Eto’o f-cked up some of his scoring chances. His chance on the 87th minute that was like a free gift why did he wasted with excessive dribbling that wasted time. And how he didn’t finish his chance on 69th minute was unbelievable.

• Hleb was disappointing in his attacking play and chances. When he had a good opportunity to score in the 80th minute he still seemed more bent on passing. Also made an awful shot in the 73rd minute (ball shot high), why didn’t he put a low shot on that one?

• Henry had lost control of the ball after Valdes made a goal kick that went all the way to Henry.

• Xavi missing a great chance to score in the 36th minute when his chip went wide, that was such a great chance missed (he was clear open for that shot). And it was a shame after the good hustle from Iniesta and then the control from Eto’o in making that chance open up for Xavi.

• Pique could have fu-ked up in the 28th minute when Fabiano turned around him in front of Valdes.

• Pique wasn’t able to direct his kick into the Sevilla goal in the 25th minute (from a cross by Xavi).

• I found Henry’s performance not so good in the first half and he made a shot for goal in the 24th minute that was disappointing (although his shot was deflected into a corner). But the Frenchman played better in the second half.

• Considering some of the scoring chances that didn’t materialized, Barcelona could have won this game by a far bigger margin.