After eliminating Real Madrid from the Copa del Rey last week, FC Barcelona’s next enormous challenge was Valencia in the semi final. Valencia are one of the most outstanding clubs in Spanish football and always a force to be reckoned with. Nonetheless Barcelona at the moment is looking a little beat and ragged, and yesterday evening Pep Guardiola had to make do without some main players due to injury,eg Andres Iniesta.
In the first half of the match the two teams looked pretty even, but Valencia seemed to create some better possibilities than Barcelona. Cesc Fabregas set up a shot for Alexis, but sadly he wasn't able to do anything with it. Immediately afterwards Jonas scored the first objective of the match to put the hosts in the lead.
However , Barcelona responded to this straight away and 10 minutes later Alexis shot at the goal, which was deflected to give Barcelona a corner. Once again, Puyol used his head and put the ball outside the keeper and into the back of the net to equalise for the Catalans.
When play continued after the break Alexis appeared to have scored only to have the goal disallowed for offside. Then ten minutes into the second half, Barcelona got given a penalty, looking like a great opportunity for Barcelona to take the lead. Nevertheless the penalty didn't go as planned and a slightly hesitant kick from Messi was easily intercepted by the Valencia goalkeeper and pushed apart.
Though Barcelona was now dominating possession they couldn't to do anything with the ball notwithstanding making 1 or 2 new probabilities; they just were not able to score and the match ended 1-1 going into the return leg at the Nou Camp next week. At least Barcelona have the edge. Let's hope that they have recovered some of the energy, and can put on a provoking display.
You can read our full Valencia v FC Barcelona match report on our website. As well as match reports and news you can order tickets from Simply Barcelona Tickets.
