Barcelona won their tenth victory in the 2018/2019 La Liga continued when they hosted Celta Vigo at the Camp Nou Stadium on Saturday (12/22) local time.
Barcelona and Celta Vigo both played their best squad in the Spanish La Liga. There were not many changes made by the two coaches from the last match that took place last weekend. Celta had a surprise at the start of the match with a chance for Nestor Araujo who still deviated from the target.
After that Barcelona made Celta survive more. In the 10th minute Ousmane Dembele broke into Ruben Blanco’s goal. A hard kick Messi successfully anticipated by Blanco, but the wild ball that was released Dembele through the legs of Blanco.
After Dembele’s goal, Barcelona even recorded possession of more than 70 percent and made Celta busy in the defense area.
Entering the middle of the first half Celta again slowly took the initiative to control the ball. Sofiane Boufal, Maxi Gomez, and Iago Aspas brought the ball closer to the Barcelona defense area. Not silent with the threat of guests, a simple attack that ended at the foot of Lionel Messi then present a goal for Barcelona in the 44th minute.
In the second half Celta looked aggressively attacking the home goal which was then returned by an almost converted attack Suarez became a goal in the 60th minute. Barcelona’s effort to score a third goal was never realized, so did Celta’s effort to reduce the lag. 2-0 score lasted until the game broke up.
This match actually runs balanced in terms of possession. Barcelona can only control 51 percent of possession with a total of 14 chances. Meanwhile, Celta Vigo successfully produced 12 opportunities. Three work midfielders played by Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde, from the start made the host’s creativity invisible. Ivan Rakitic, Sergio Busquets, and Arturo Vidal, seemed to be struggling to master the midfield.
The two Barcelona creative midfielders, Arthur and Philippe Coutinho, who were included in the second round, looked quite late. Until the end of the match there were no additional goals created. These two additional goals make Barcelona have now scored 108 goals during the 2018 calendar. That number makes Barcelona the most productive team in Europe’s top five.
Victory at home makes Barcelona comfortable topping the La Liga standings with 37 points or away three points from Atletico Madrid who won 1-0 victory over Espanyol. In the match that took place before the kick-off between Barcelona and Celta Vigo, Antoine Griezmann scored Atletico’s only goal from the spot in the second half.
