After a poor performance last night against Ibiza in Copa del Rey, the hero of the match Antonie Griezmann has spoken out about his team. Last night the Blaugrana made an awful start and played very bad in the first half even though they were leading in the possession stats.
Barcelona trailed by 1-0 in the first half and the team was looking an unprofessional one but eventually won 2-1 to avoid the elimination in the first round of the cup due to the Frenchman’s brace. It was a humiliating first half after which with some changes like Jordi Alba, Arthur and Vidal gave Barca the win.
Players like Semedo, Junior Firpo, Carles Perez and Rique Puig just struggled in the worst pitch they ever played on. Even though there could be excuses like the floodlight of the stadium was disastrous but as a team, Barcelona was not up to the mark.
Like Sunday’s match against Granada, in this match too we saw Quique‘s three centre-back formation led by Junior Firpo, Sergi Roberto and Clement Lenglet, but this formation was not that impressive.
The bad performance by Firpo and Lenglet gave the early lead to Ibiza, Roberto still tried his best, if the second goal by Ibiza wouldn’t be called off by the referee due to the foul then we might have had a different result from the last night.
If Griezmann would not step up to score the brace, Barca could really have been humiliated by their fans. He said after the match:
“They came in to the match better than us, They knew the pitch. It was hard to create chances, we didn’t take a shot in the first half. It’s a new system with 3 CBs, we have to get used to it, we have to work hard.”
The 3-4-3 attacking formation works well during the attack but struggles if there’s any lack of urgency shown by the defenders as well as the midfielders. De Jong did play a great role but was not supported by his subordinate Ivan Rakitic who was replaced by Vidal in the dying minutes.
“We are adjusting to the tactics of the new coach, and we have to continue to work,” Griezmann said. “We have to gain confidence with the ball, create spaces in the attack”
“I thank my teammates for their passes, without them, it’s difficult for me to score. I was playing higher up the pitch, I had to wait for my chances. I got two, and scored two.”
Jordi Alba and De Jong showed their first team class with their great assists and even though Griezmann did not play well in the first half as he not been provided with key passes when he got the opportunities he scored twice, what we could expect from a world-class striker.
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