LaLiga [Week 18]: FCBarcelona vs Real Betis

Pedro out for 10 days, which disqualifies him for the next 3 games. (Betis, Real Madrid, & Malaga)

LaLiga [Week 18]: On Sunday 15 January
#FCBarcelona vs Real Betis at 9:30PM CET

Guardiola worked with the 15 available first team players plus Cuenca, Montoya, Sergi Roberto and Dos Santos from the Barça B squad
http://www.fcbarcelona.com/football/first-team/detail/article/now-for-betis

Lineup/Formation/Score Predictions?

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~ Some Stats:

Guardiola's #FCBarcelona vs RealBetis [at Camp Nou]: 3-2 win in #laliga 2008/2009 & 5-0 win #copa del rey 2011/11.

#FCBarcelona record vs Real Betis ( at Camp Nou - #laliga): 46matches [35W, 7D,4L] scored 127goals & conceded 39.

Leo #Messi 's record vs Real Betis: 7matches [4W,2D,1L] scored 5 goals & assisted 2 [478 minutes].

3-4-3. Don't think Pep will use Puyol as there is a clasico coming up. My line up:
Valdes
MAscherano-Pique-Abidal
Busquests
Xavi Thiago
Cesc
Alexis Messi Cuenca

If Alves and Inestia are fit they would replace Thaigo and Alexis
4-0 with goals from Messi, Fabregas (2) and Alexis/Alves

Our home form has been outstanding this season in contrast to our away form. I find Betis a potentially tricky team for us. If my memory serves me well, they were really interesting to watch in last years Copa.

I just think we should not underestimate them.

‎.
~ FCBarcelona has just 15 first team players to play against Real Betis & Real Madrid.
~ + Barca B players: Cuenca, Sergi Roberto, JDS & Montoya.
~ Injured Players: Villa, Afellay & Fontas [long-term], Pedro [10days].
~ Maxwell (PSG), Kieta (African Cup).

~Line-up Predictions:

Valdes
Masche Puyol Abidal
Xavi Sergio Cesc Iniesta
Alves Messi Thiago

In 12 games since the 2-2 against #ACMilan on 13 Sep, #FCBarcelona have scored 53goals at the #CampNou without conceding

#Barça are unbeaten in the last 42 matches (36W, 6D, 0L) at CampNou, all competitions since losing to Hercules (0-2), 11 Sep 2010

Khaledbarca wrote:‎.
~ FCBarcelona has just 15 first team players to play against Real Betis & Real Madrid.
~ + Barca B players: Cuenca, Sergi Roberto, JDS & Montoya.
~ Injured Players: Villa, Afellay & Fontas [long-term], Pedro [10days].
~ Maxwell (PSG), Kieta (African Cup).

~Line-up Predictions:

Valdes
Masche Puyol Abidal
Xavi Sergio Cesc Iniesta
Alves Messi Thiago

And I thought this season we were going to have a terrific squad.
Just 16 first team players including Pedro.
Its extremely unfortunate that we lost 3 first team players to injury this season.
Any idea when Afellay can be expected back or is he out for the season?

Our first two goals conceded at the Camp Nou, could have been easily more if not for Valdes, he was great tonight. I'm extremely relieved that we won this game because I think if we would have gotten anything other than a win it would have been over for the league.

im angry at the ref for a few things, but mostly because he didnt award that blatant penalty on iniesta and rather awarded a scandalous handball just so people will throw the "refcelona" in our face...

also other things include, interfering with play and not awarding some hard tackles mostly on iniesta.

Mate they have no reason to shout villarrato seeing as that was as clear as they come. The position of the hand does not matter at all if its a penalty or not, its the movement of the hand/arm towards the ball and the arm clearly moved to the ball, hence its a clear penalty..

What a relief !

Why do we always get teams back into the game ?

It was only after they drew level when we started to search for a goal.

We won't win league title with this kind of attitude, the team better start killing games early on, can't afford to drop any more points.

I agree James. We have to keep pushing for goals right from the beginning. This kind of attitude is frankly surprising me. Does anyone feel Pep is telling them to back off and conserve their energy or something like that?

I was actually writing about this attitude in espanyol rage thread, where i also said we are not a team to defend 1 or even 2 goals lead, and we almost blew this up.

I mean we should show credit to Betis, but i do not see the hunger in this team, and i am sure this is going to cost us at least a league.

Yeah we have a thin squad, then wtf dont we play young players but tell them to work 120% or they get sacked if we want to conserve energy of the first team players. This 1, 2 goal lead and defending the result is really making me sick.

as always we saw the real barcelona after draw

A bit of a scare today...the 3-4-3 didn't work as well as it has done this season at the camp nou. Clearly they found a way to counter it, while playing great football.

Or it could just be that its that time of the year when we are squeezing out results but playing like shit.

Or maybe they were conserving energy for midweek.

billionmillion wrote:as always we saw the real barcelona after draw

That is what makes me angry. We try to conserve energy by defending minor lead and then end up working more than necessary. Instead of killing the game in first half and then letting the kids continue on half power.

Worst match at home in this season..

anyway, 3pts is what matters now..

Don't act like this switching off after having a league is a new thing. Its the Barca Syndrome, anyone who has watched Barca for a while would know its been going on for at least a decade... Its the most frustrating thing about the team.

alexjanosik wrote:
And I thought this season we were going to have a terrific squad.
Just 16 first team players including Pedro.
Its extremely unfortunate that we lost 3 first team players to injury this season.
Any idea when Afellay can be expected back or is he out for the season?

Alex, I think the football gods are against us this year. Call me pessimistic, but it depends on Madrid now as to whether they win or not. Injuries, bad luck, poor attitude, inconsistency... it just hasn't been our league this year. It shouldn't be panic stations though. We've beaten Madrid in the Clasico, we're still the better team, you just can't win them all.

BarcaKizz wrote:Don't act like this switching off after having a league is a new thing. Its the Barca Syndrome, anyone who has watched Barca for a while would know its been going on for at least a decade... Its the most frustrating thing about the team.

I agree, but it used to happen at a lesser frequency, especially in the Pep era.

BarcaKizz wrote:Don't act like this switching off after having a league is a new thing. Its the Barca Syndrome, anyone who has watched Barca for a while would know its been going on for at least a decade... Its the most frustrating thing about the team.

"If there’s something that this team does not do, it's ease up, this is a consequence of not wanting to lose what one has gained over the years. They would have to do something very wrong for you to doubt their commitment.”

Pep said this after the game

I read that too haha... Well the thing is Barca were able to come back once the game was 2-2. They had a whole half to catch up which helped too. The problem is more that they let a 2 goal lead slip away at home. For me neither not pushing on to win by more and letting the game drift, conceding a couple to reduce the deficit, drawing, or losing is good enough once you're winning and you are Barca.

harhar11 wrote:Mate they have no reason to shout villarrato seeing as that was as clear as they come. The position of the hand does not matter at all if its a penalty or not, its the movement of the hand/arm towards the ball and the arm clearly moved to the ball, hence its a clear penalty..

As far as I know if it's hand to ball then the position of the hand doesn't matter but if it's ball to hand then it does. This incident would be interpreted as hand to ball even if very slightly. What happens is that the defender does try to move his hand backwards but while doing that he has bent his body and thereby upper arm more towards the ball. Hence it becomes a hand to ball case which makes the penalty justified I think.

Its frustrating and concerning that we are not killing off games and have struggled lately... but so often we score goals too easily early in games and just naturally relax...and some teams just give up, but some dont and credit to Betis they scored 2 very good goals, which shocked us. 3-4-3 dont always work and luckily Guardiola changed back to 4-3-3 after the break... Messi scored 2 but again werent himself relaly, but much better than last game, and he will be at his best Wesnesday im sure of it

I hope that our blip is over, its mid January now and if we win Wednesday we will hit momentum I feel, GO BARCA~!!!

Not one comment about Mascherano's match? Easily his worst of the season, he looked rusty and got toyed about in the defense.

Also about time someone but Messi stepped up to save the day, Alexis did that and really deserves ridiculous praise. All 3 goals were his doing. Him and Valdes were the best of the side.

Betis was great, they did a great job.

The 3-4-3 experiment failed, at least in its amount of use. It doesn't even work without Keita. Pep needs to be more selective about when to use it.

Might've been the worst match yet at home, but by far the most entertaining.