Granada 2-0 Barça: Pathetic

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What a joke.

Barcelona remain without a win away from the Camp Nou this season thanks to a truly embarrassing 2-0 loss to Granada on Saturday. The Blaugrana were pathetic for the whole 90 minutes and were properly beaten by a better team who attacked and defended better for the entire match. It is what it is.

FIRST HALF

It was a horrible first half from Barça in every phase of the game: they conceded just two minutes into the match thanks to a combination of poor defending, individual mistakes, a bit of bad luck and really good positioning from Azeez, who gave his team a big early lead.

After showing off their terrible defense it was time for Barça to be bad in attack: their passing was awful, the movement was non-existent and they seemed alergic to shooting the ball. Antoine Griezmann was running around trying to make something happen, but every promising play was ruined by Luis Suárez and Sergi Roberto, who always found themselves and good positions and managed to either lose the ball or misplace an easy pass.

Granada had nothing to do with Barça’s problems and remained solid defensively and dangerous on the counter, firing shots at will and finishing the first half as by far and away the better team on the pitch.

At halftime, Barça’s performance was pathetic and they deserved to lose by more than just the one goal. It was hard to see them mounting a comeback, but Lionel Messi and Ansu Fati were on the pitch warming up and there was some hope.

SECOND HALF

Messi and Ansu Fati did start the second half and Barça lined up in a 4-2-1-3, with Messi in behind a front three of Griezmann, Suárez and Fati with Frenkie De Jong and Ivan Rakitic anchoring the midfield. Barça planted themselves in Granada’s half and the plan was to become more dangerous thanks to Fati’s dribbling and Messi’s movement.

The plan didn’t work thanks to Granada’s fantastic defensive structure, and the home team earned a chance to double their lead when Arturo Vidal was called for a handball in the box following video review. Álvaro Vadillo scored the penalty, and Granada were 2-0 up with 25 minutes to go.

The rest of the game saw Barça fail to create any chances to make a comeback despite having all the possession, and the final whistle came to put them out of their misery. Granada are better than us, y’all. Freaking Granada.

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Granada: Rui Silva; Díaz, Sánchez, Duarte, Neva; Herrera (Gonalons 83’), Montoro; Puertas, Azeez, Machís (Vadillo 62’); Soldado (Fernández 57’)

Goals: Azeez (2’), Vadillo (66’)

Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Semedo, Piqué, Lenglet, Firpo (Ansu Fati 45’); Roberto, De Jong, Rakitic (Vidal 62’); Pérez (Messi 45’), Suárez, Griezmann

Goals: None

Source: barcablaugranes.com