Granada 0-4 Barça: Recap
A huge performance and the unbeaten streak continues!
Barcelona’s unbeaten streak in La Liga is now up to eight games as the Blaugrana won their fourth away game in a row thanks to a 4-0 demolition against Granada. Barça dominated from start to finish, scored some really good goals and played very well as a team, with a number of impressive individual performances leading Barça to three big points on the road.
FIRST HALF
Granada made a solid start to the game, with physical defending stopping Barça from getting into a rhythm in the first 10 minutes, and Antonio Puertas forced a huge save out of Marc-André ter Stegen in the first big chance of the half.
After a rough beginning Barça settled into their style and dominated possession, but struggled against a well-organized low block from the home team and needed patience to work the ball from side to side. Pedri wasn’t as lively or brilliant but Lionel Messi was at it from the get-go, constantly linking up with the other forwards and Jordi Alba to try and find spaces.
Barça needed a break and they got it when Roberto Soldado deflected a Sergio Busquets pass into the path of Antoine Griezmann, who would have been offside but was allowed to receive a pass from the opponent and found the back of the net to give Barça the lead. With a lucky opening goal the Blaugrana calmed down and began to dominate, not allowing Granada any joy on the counter and bringing pressure.
Then Lionel Messi happened: first the captain received a pass from Griezmann, shifted the ball to his left foot and placed a beauty into the top corner, then after Pedri won a free-kick at the edge of the box Messi fired a rocket into the bottom corner before Rui Silva could react, and Barça had a three-goal lead.
At halftime the Blaugrana were on top and playing well on the road, and the win was pretty much guaranteed.
SECOND HALF
Granada made three changes at halftime and came out with intensity and high pressing, and Barça had a bit of trouble building from the back and missed some easy passes in the final third, but as time went on the visitors returned to their passing patterns and weathered the early storm.
Then came the knockout blow after a gorgeous long pass from Busquets to Ousmane Dembélé, who found Griezmann in space inside the box, and Antoine scored a gorgeous goal with his right foot to make it 4-0 and kill off the game with half an hour to go. That gave Ronald Koeman a rare chance to rest Messi, who came off with 30 minutes left along with Frenkie De Jong, which was a nice thing to see with the game decided.
Barça played against 10 men in the final 15 minutes after Jesús Vallejo was sent off for Granada, but there were no more goals scored and the final whistle came to end an impressive night for Barça. The team was great and a few players, like Óscar Mingueza, De Jong, Griezmann and of course Messi had especially good nights, and maybe, just maybe, this team is starting to catch fire.
Granada: Silva; Foulquier, Sánchez, Duarte, Neva (Vallejo 46’); Eteki, Herrera (Soro 70’); Puertas, Montoro (Milla 46’), Machís (Kenedy 64’); Soldado (Suárez 46’)
Goals: None
Red Card: Vallejo (78’)
Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Dest (Firpo 80’), Mingueza, Umtiti, Alba; De Jong (Pjanic 65’), Busquets, Pedri (Trincão 72’); Dembélé (Puig 72’), Messi (Braithwaite 65’), Griezmann
Goals: Griezmann (12’, 63’), Messi (35’, 42’)
Source: barcablaugranes.com
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