Barça 1-2 Celta: Recap
Another disaster.
Barcelona are mathematically out of the La Liga title race thanks to a 2-1 loss to Celta Vigo in their home finale at Camp Nou. Barça started well and took the lead, but as usual under Ronald Koeman they fell apart in the second half and conceded a late winner in what was maybe Lionel Messi’s last home game for Barça.
FIRST HALF
Barça were the better team for the first 30 minutes, dominating possession and managing to create good situations against a low block from Celta, who didn’t press as high as they usually do and had absolutely nothing to offer on the counter, and the Blaugrana were always dangerous whenever Lionel Messi touched the ball.
The captain eventually scored, thanks to a brilliant assist by Sergio Busquets who played a perfect cross into the GOAT’s path for a rare header by Messi. The goal was the cherry on top of a great half-hour by Barça, who then imploded and started losing easy balls and giving Celta space to attack, and Santi Mina scored from outside the box thanks to some terrible defending by Gerard Piqué to equalize.
At halftime, a game that was fully in Barça’s hands got away from them and Celta looked stronger and ready to cause problems in the second half.
SECOND HALF
There was a surprise substitution at the half as Riqui Puig came on for Pedri, which was good because that meant more minutes for Puig but not good because it took Pedri off and left Ilaix Moriba on, and the youngster simply wasn’t good in this one. Barça started the half strongly but started melting away as the half went on, and Celta grew into the game and became more dangerous with every counter-attack.
Then Clément Lenglet was sent off for two yellow cards in a 10-minute period, and Barça’s defense was wide open and couldn’t hang on to the result. After a Kevin Vázquez cross hit the post, Santi Mina scored on the rebound against an open net, and the visitors earned a late lead.
Martin Braithwaite missed a sitter at the end and Messi couldn’t be the savior this time, and the final whistle came to end another disaster for Barça, who are officially out of the title race. This was awful.
Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Araujo, Piqué (Dest 64’), Lenglet; Dembélé (Trincão 70’), Moriba (Pjanic 86’), Busquets, Pedri (Puig 46’), Alba; Messi, Griezmann (Braithwaite 70’)
Goal: Messi (28’)
Red Card: Lenglet (83’)
Celta Vigo: Villar; Vázquez, Araújo, Domínguez, Martín; Beltrán; Méndez, Denis, Nolito (Solari 69’); Aspas (Baeza 78’), Mina
Goals: Mina (38’, 89’)
Source: barcablaugranes.com
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