Barcelona stung by a major blow ahead of Celtic showdown
BARCELONA 1 Mathieu (47) ALAVES 2 Deyverson (39), Gomez (64)
BARCELONA suffered a double blow ahead of their Champions League showdown with Celtic this week after they crashed to a shock Nou Camp defeat to newly-promoted Alaves and No 1 keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was ruled out of the tie.
An out of sorts Barca were exposed defensively last night and will have given plenty of encouragement to the Hoops, who sent scout John McGlynn to watch their old foes.
Manager Luis Enrique rested seven players from their last win against Athletic Bilbao, but was forced to bring on Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Andres Iniesta from the bench in a desperate bid to salvage something from the game.
But, as if Celtic didn’t have a good enough day yesterday after their Old Firm thumping of Rangers, Brendan Rodgers will take plenty of hope from how defensively slack Barcelona were.
And Barca’s troubles magnified when their German international keeper injured himself in training on Friday and has been ruled out for two weeks, which means he won’t face the Scottish champions.
Celtic will instead face an old foe — Holland international Jasper Cillessen made his Barca debut last night and will line up against Celtic again, after previously facing them in both the Champions League and the Europa League recently.
With his three key men on the bench and Gerard Pique rested altogether, it was a slightly unusual Barca line up last night and it showed. If Luis Enrique intended it as a compliment to Celtic, it was a big one.
But the Catalans were delighted to welcome back Neymar for his first appearance of the season. He only returned to Spain this week after 100 days of holidays, winning Olympic Gold for his country and Brazil’s World Cup qualifiers, but he went straight into the line-up.
But the Basque side— who got an opening day La Liga draw at Atletico Madrid — were a really tough nut to crack. Alaves were extremely well organised at the back and openings were few and far between.
So much so that Barcelona did not manage to force visiting keeper Fernando Pacheco into making one save in the first half. Not one.
And six minutes before that half-time interval, Alaves had shocked the Nou Camp by taking a stunning lead. Kiko shrugged off new boy Lucas Digne on the right wing and his cross was pushed into the net by Deyverson, who had nipped in ahead of Javier Mascherano.
Barcelona’s first effort on target was a goal when they equalised just over a minute into the second half from the simplest of routes. A Neymar corner was nodded into the net by the unmarked French international defender Jeremy Mathieu.
But amazingly, Alaves regained the lead. A dismal clearance from Mascherano allowed Ibai Gomez to pick his spot and slide in a cool finish past Cillessen.
Suarez came on and the home fans howled for an equaliser and they became increasingly more desperate.
But Alaves held firm and showed Celtic this Barcelona team are far from unbeatable.