SUMMARY
Given the injuries for Manchester United including: Valencia, Bailly, Darmian, Matic, Herrera, and Alexis it seemed as though the Red Devils faced an uphill battle at home against an in-form Barcelona side. This appeared to be true in the opening minutes of the match with Barcelona enjoying most of the ball, although United were always a threat on the break with the pace of Marcus Rashford. It only took 12 minutes for Barcelona to open up the scoring when a Sergio Busquets played a good ball over the heads of the Manchester defense to Messi who had made a penetrating run. Messi’s first touch took him wide to the left of the box allowing him to use his famous left-foot to find Suarez at the back posts whose close range header glanced off Luke Shaw and found the back of the net for the own goal. When the goal was scored you would be forgiven to assume that the weakened line-up for Manchester United were in for a long night. Uncharacteristically, Barcelona struggled to keep the ball after the goal seeing some key experienced players of theirs give the ball away incredibly cheaply on a number of occasions, it was an extremely rare sight of Barcelona. Their sloppy play in the half still yielded their share of chances, one of which produced a heroic save from David De Gea in the 36th minute. Most of the United chances came from unforced errors from Barcelona which forced them to cease trying to build-out from goal kicks and instead choose the longer route which is borderline sacrilegious to the Blaugrana side. The half ended with the game opening up and both sides showing that they still possess a threat, particularly Manchester United on the break. At the start of the second half, Barcelona looked rattled by the pressure of Manchester United. The renewed energy and most likely an energetic half-time talk from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer allowed united to unleash a press on Barcelona who struggled to get out. The Red Devils had most of the ball, but seemed to lack some creativity in the final third to reward them for their pressure. It seemed that their only game plan was to allow a well-marked Pogba to do his best to create a chance or get the ball wide and swing it into the box. They chose the latter on most occasions which yielded little fruit and became very predictable for Barcelona to defend. It was a game that was crying out for the quality and experience of Juan Mata. The game changed for the better from a Barcelona perspective when Arturo Vidal came on for Coutinho and Sergi Roberto replaced Arthur, perhaps to try to establish a foothold in midfield. After a few hot-headed minutes from Vidal due to watching his side give the ball away, the substitutions seemed to work and the new midfield duo were able to help establish some consistent possession for Barcelona and ultimately see the game to its finish at 1-0 to the away side.
GOALKEEPERS:
DE GEA: The Spaniard had no chance in saving the Barcelona goal due to the quality of the Leonel Messi cross to Luis Suarez. He did prove his worth in this game, despite conceding, by keeping the deficit to one on three occasions. The first was a brilliant save following a Coutinho blast at the top of the box after being laid the ball by Luis Suarez. After coming out to close the angle on Luis Suarez, De Gea’s defenders were able to recover allowing him to get back to his line, set his feet, and produce a fantastic reaction to save the low shot by stretching out his left-foot. We see De Gea make saves with his feet often. His coordination is very impressive having very little time to react and get good contact with his weaker left foot. The second save was from a Leonel Messi free kick. Messi struck the ball underneath the wall from the top-left of the box to De Gea’s left and Dea Gea took one shuffle step toward the balls trajectory. The ball took a deflection and was now headed to the other side of the goal now to De Gea’s right. De Gea does well to shift his weight going in one direction to collapse low to his right to hold onto the ball. The third save came from another save with his feet in which Rashford strikes the ball at his feet as he stood up at the near post from a very tight angle, again, good coordination.
TER STEGEN: Like De Gea, the German was not very busy in this match and I do not believe he had to make a significant save. As always, Ter Stegen was very good with his feet allowing his side to keep possession (or try) on many occasions throughout the game. As it became apparent to Ter Stegen that his side was struggling to string together passes he did well to push them up-field and play good driven balls to Luis Suarez from goal kicks. On a few occasions he played very good low driven balls to the feet for Luis Suarez slicing through two lines of United defenders. The other notable contribution Ter Stegen made was commanding his area by punching away two Manchester United services into the box. Ter Stegen utilized an open stance to crosses and, on both occasions the cross came from the Manchester United right wing to Ter Stegen’s left. The first was a vital intervention in which his open, 45 degree angle stance allowed him take one shuffle and reach the ball with his right fist. He was under pressure and showed good bravery knowing very well that he could be clattered into. The second was similar to the first, although he had less time to react to the flight of the ball due to its flight and could only punch it straight down into the path of Rashford who couldn’t turn it on goal. He got enough power on the punch to put off the United striker.
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