Match Report: Saturday 30/09/2006 22:00 (GMT +2): Primera Liga, Match Day 5
ATLETIC BILBAO - FC BARCELONA 1:3 (1:1)

San Mamés, Bilbao – Attendance: 39.000
Referee: David Fernández Borbalán


Goals:

1-0 Yeste 11´
1-1 Ustaritz, o.g. 45´

1-2 Gudjonsen 61´
1-3 Saviola 77´


Red Card: Casas 20´


FC Barcelona (4-3-3): Valdés - Zambrotta, Marquez, Puyol, Gio - Edmilson (Giuly 31´), Xavi, Deco (Iniesta 61´) - Messi, Gudjohnsen (Saviola 71´), Ronaldinho - Manager: Frank Rijkaard


Atletic Bilbao (4-4-2): Lafuente - Casas (red card 20´), Ustaritz, Sarriegi, Garmendia (Gabilondo 73´) - Iraola, Orbaiz, Javi Martinez, Exteberria (Urzaiz 62´) - Llorente (Exposito 22´), Yeste - Manager: Felix Sarriguarta


Match Report:

FC Barcelona stays at the top of La Liga and maintained the unbeaten run into the season. Athletic Bilbao stays third from bottom with just two points from their opening five matches.


Despite not having won any of their first 4 matches, Atletic Bilbao looked very sharp in the opening period and played very aggressive attacking football from the start. As a result, after only 11 minutes, Atletic´s Francisco Yeste superbly volleyed the ball past Victor Valdes and put the home side in front. Yeste himself passed the ball out to young striker Fernando Llorente on the left who´s cross was deflected from Rafa Marquez´s leg. Yeste then was just in the right place to receive the deflected cross and hiot a stunning volley right into the right side of the Barca goal.


The turning point of the match came in the 20th minute when Atletic´s defender Javier Casas was shown the red card on a professional foul on Barca´s center forward Eidur Gudjohnsen. Leo Messi had a great run through the midfield and his pass set centre forward Gudjohnsen free, who was running towards the penalty area but went down under the challenge from Casas. Controversy surrounded the situation because it was clearly a professional foul and Gudjohnsen was denied a clear goal scoring opportunity but it is doubtful that Casas was the last man.
Definetely, the red card turned the game completely and in to the favour of Barca.


After Atletic was down to 10 men, tactical changes were made on both sides. Bilbao sacrificed young striker Llorente for Unai Expósito, to fill the empty spot in atletics defence line and Rijkaard brought on french winger Giuly for defensive midfielder Edmílson to add a player in attack and take advantage of the player surplus.


From now on, Barca was controlling and dominating the game and started to create chances. Ronaldinho sent two free-kicks over the cross bar. Gudjohnsen and Xavi both shot towards the goal but both opportunities landed wide. Bilbao´s best player on this night, Francisco Yeste, had the only opportunity for Atletic before the equaliser came in first-half injury time, but his shot went wide.


Barcelona levelled the match in a psychological important period, just moments before the half time whistle. Gudjohnsen sent in a low cross towards Barca captain Carles Puyol. But unlucky Atletic defender Ustaritz beat Puyol only to steer the ball past his own goalkeeper Inaki Lafuente.


In the second half the spectators saw only one way football. FC Barcelona was in charge and it was only a matter of time when Barca would take the lead.


Barça could have gone ahead almost immediately after the restart when Giuly tried to convert a high ball from Ronaldinho and Mexican defender Rafael Márquez's powerful shot hit the far post. Few minutes later Marquez shot a long distance free kick over the bar.


In the 61st minute Forward Gudjohnsen put Barca in the lead after a superb pass of midfielder Xavi Hernandez. Gudjohnsen raced all on his own into the penalty area to shot the ball into the far corner.


After the 71st minute Icelandic forward Gudjohnsen was replaced by Saviola and it took only 6 minutes for the pacey Argentine striker to prove that he could fill Eto'o´s boots at Barca, as long as the Cameroon hitman is sidelined. Substitute Saviola sealed the Barca´s victory after 77 minutes after some excellent build-up play between Xavi and Andres Iniesta.


Ronaldinho showed another moment of magic when he lobbed over Bilbao keeper Lafuente but the ball drifted wide of the far post.


Finally, a deserved 3-1 victory for Barca but San Mames again proved to be a difficult place.


My Comment:

Definetely the headlines of the week have about the awful injury of inform topstriker Samuel Eto'o. How will Barca cope without their goal machine and who should replace him? At the end Barca won 3-1 and both possible replacements, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Javier Saviola, scored against Athletic Bilbao. This leaves Barca coach Frank Rijkaard with another luxury problem: Who will he select for the next match?
I do not care, as long as the selected striker scores and Barca win.

I alreadys mentioned that Barca will cope with Eto'o´s injury, as they have done before when many star players had been side-lined with lengthy injuries and it looks that way. Both strikers will be motivated to prove that they are more than a worthy replacement for the Cameroon hitman Eto'o. They will want to start on a regular basis. Now, both have proved their point and I hope this will continue. Nothing better for Barca than having 2 goal scoring striker´s at choice. And the competition between the two will fire them up for each single game.


Surely, Barca would have had to battle much harder for a victory, if the red card would not have been awarded. This way, it was an easy cruise. But who cares at the end? 3 points away and top of the league. Barca is making the pace, others have to follow the champs and are not allowed to drop points. A nice situation to be in, before we meet Sevilla in a fourtnight.