Barcelona Batter Sporting In Thrilling Contest

Claud · Nov 26, 2008

Sporting Clube 2-5 FC Barcelona

Goals, chances, penalties,red cards, and all the excitement you could want in what turned out to be a thriller in Lisbon.

This was in essence a meaningless contest as the top two had already qualified after match-day four. Pep Guardiola while making changes still fielded a strong starting eleven with intent to take top spot in the section, and supposedly an easier fixture in the Super Sixteen Round. He shuffled his front three once more, with Messi returning from injury to slot in alongside Thierry Henry and Eidur Gudjohnsen.

Sporting too were almost at full strength, with the much-coveted Portuguese Joao Moutinho slotting in behind Liedson, who had begin to find scoring form again after a slow start to the season domestically. They had performed extremely well to beat Shakhtar Donetsk home and away to secure their place in the next round, but were themselves looking to grab an unlikely top spot.

But it was the Blaugrana who started with intent, and they stormed into a two-goal lead before their hosts had known what hit them. On fourteen minutes Messi was at his beguiling best on the wing, snaking down the by line to cut back to Thierry Henry, who had the simplest of tasks to slide the ball into the empty net. It was his first Champions League goal of the season, and his fifth of the campaign.

Moments later it was two; a high cross to the back post somewhat fortunately struck Gudjohnsen on the side of the head, and the ball bounced straight into the path of a grateful Pique, who prodded the ball home to give the visitors a comfortable advantage.

Barcelona clearly had Sunday’s below-par display against Getafe, where they could only manage a 1-1 draw, on their minds as they set to work on tying up the match as efficiently as possible. They maintained possession extremely well and Lisbon were chasing shadows for long spells of the half. The Catalans early double salvo had clinically killed the match as a contest.

Second Half Goal Glut

After the break, Sporting had no escape from a purposeful and confident Barcelona. The game was over, if it wasn’t already, in the 50th minute when Messi slid home the third past a demoralised Patricio to give the diminutive Argentine the goal his play deserved.

Guardiola immediately withdrew his talisman to preserve him for Barca’s tough run of Christmas fixtures, with Pedro his replacement, and on his arrival he fed another young protégé,Bojan, who approached the edge of the box before blasting just over.

Sporting to their credit pulled one back on 65 minutes. Marquez was wrongly adjudged to have handled the ball at the edge of the area, but Miguel Veloso showed no mercy and swerved a powerful free-kick past the slightly static Victor Valdes. Sporting had a lifeline.

Incredibly, after not having a sniff of an opportunity for more than an hour, Sporting grabbed a second goal a minute later through their striker Liedson. Marquez attempted a disastrous return header to Valdes and the Brazilian accepted the chance with aplomb.

All of a sudden, what should have been a procession to victory for the Spaniards was now decidedly nervy.

However, as bizarre a passage of play as you’ll find this evening continued when Lisbon defender Caniera loop the ball over his own goalkeeper in calamitous fashion to restore Barcelona’s cushion.

Then Rui Patricio, who had already watched the ball fly past him four times, blocked a run from Bojan inside the eighteen-yard box and the referee ordered him off to compound his sides' misery on a terrible evening for the goalkeeper. Bojan slotted the ball- just – past sub keeper Tiago to make the score an incredible 5-2 to the Blaugrana.

This was a quite astonishing second half, full of attacking play and incident. Those who believed that this match may be as drab as last nights’ stalemate in Villarreal were given a welcome surprise.

To be fair, the freedom of both having qualified opened up the contest from the off, but credit must go to Barcelona for their supreme offensive play, and also to Sporting for making a game of it – albeit briefly – in that pulsating second period.

GOALS
Sporting Clube:
Veloso (65’), Liedson (66’)

Barcelona:
Henry (14’), Pique (17’), Messi (50’), Caneira (70’ o.g ), Bojan (74’ pen)

LINE-UPS

Sporting Clube:
Patricio; Carrico, Polga,Caniera, Grimi, Yannick (Tiago 71’), Veloso, Pereirinha, Moutinho, Romagnoli,
Liedson (Postiga 83’)

Barcelona:
Valdes; Alves, Pique, Marquez,Caceres; Hleb, Xavi (Keita 75’), Busquests; Gudjohnsen, Henry (Bojan 45’), Messi (Pedro 56’)
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Barcelona Batter Sporting In Thrilling Contest

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