VITORIA GASTEIZ – Barcelona did not manage to reap all the points when they visited Deportivo Alavés headquarters in the continued match of the 2020-2021 Spanish League on Sunday (11/1/2020). Because Ronald Koeman’s squad was able to contain Alavés with a score of 1-1.
Barcelona even had to fight to reach a draw. Because Barcelona had lagged behind from minute 31. Antoine Griezmann was lucky enough to score a goal in minute 63, so Barcelona did not lose at least in that match.
The course of the match
First round
Barcelona played very well since the game had just started at the Mendizorrotza Stadium. As usual, Lionel Messi and his friends immediately controlled the game very quickly.
Although possession of the ball is controlled, Barcelona actually have difficulties scoring goals. While depressed Alaves rarely held the ball, once dominated, they attacked immediately and created an opportunity.
Unfortunately, Barcelona finally felt it when the game entered in the 31st minute. Gerard Piqué, who was aiming to bait Neto in the Barcelona penalty area, wreaked havoc on the club.
Because apparently Neto was not ready to receive feedback from Piqué, as a result the goalkeeper’s ball control was poor and the ball was finally released by pressure from Alavés player Luis Rioja.
Luis Rioja, who had the opportunity, was able to grab the ball from Neto and immediately threw it into Barcelona’s goal. The 0-1 of the defeat of Barcelona took place.
Barcelona had several times the golden opportunity to rebalance the scoreboard. However, the Alavés goalkeeper Fernando Pacheco played well so the 0-1 lasted until the first half ended.
Second round
Going into the second half, Barcelona stepped on the accelerator immediately. They immediately blocked the Alavés defense to score the tie.
Inevitably, almost all the Alavés players came down to defend. As a result, the Barcelona players had difficulty penetrating the visiting team’s defense.
Alavés did everything possible to maintain their superiority. Including how to play a little rough. Unfortunately this method was too risky and Alavés lost Jota in the 62nd minute because he was rewarded with a red card by the referee.
Higher number of players, Barcelona is going crazy. The efforts of the squad, dubbed the Blaugrana, finally paid off. Because at 63 minutes. It was Antoine Griezmann who made Barcelona manage to balance the score at 1-1.
Griezmann and Lionel Messi became more and more in the second half that remained. However, all these opportunities always failed due to the outstanding performances of Pacheco between the Alavés goal.
Messi and Griezmann had time to get the ball into Alavés’ goal. But their goal was disallowed because they had entered the offside trap. Soon the referee ended the game and Barcelona had to settle for several points with Alavés after drawing 1-1.
Below is the composition of the players:
Deportivo Alaves XI (5-4-1): Fernando Pacheco; Ruben Duarte, Florian Lejeune, Victor Laguardia, Ximo Navarro, Edgar Mendez; Luis Rioja, Tomas Pina, Rodrigo Battaglia, Jota; Deyverson.
Deportivo Alaves SUBS: John Guidetti, Antonio Sivera, Burgui, Lucas Perez, Joselu, Adrian Marin, Martin Aguirregabiria, Rodrigo Ely, Manu Garcia, Borja Sainz, Tachi, Tomas Tavares.
Barcelona XI (4-2-3-1): Net; Sergi Roberto, Gerard Piqué, Clement Lenglet, Jordi Alba; Sergio Busquets, Frenkie De Jong; Ousmane Dembele, Lionel Messi, Ansu Fati; Antoine Griezmann.
SUBS Barcelona: Sergino Dest, Carles Alena, Miralem Pjanic, Martin Braithwaite, Pedri, Francisco Trincao, Junior Firpo, Iñaki Pena, Konrad De La Fuente, Arnau Tenas.
