Let’s be fair here: Tottenham was missing a number of key starters due to injury. But damn, Barcelona looked so much better than Spurs in the first half of their Champions League match on Wednesday at Wembley Stadium in London.
Philippe Coutinho scored an easy goal 90 seconds into the match and Ivan Rakitic hammered home a long-range volley off the post in the 28th minute as Barcelona led 2-0 at halftime.
Déjà vu approached the viewer of CSKA Moscow vs. Real Madrid on Tuesday and punched him or her in the teeth. Whether it was the sight of Russian internationals Igor Akinfeev and Mario Fernandes doing brave defending, Marco Asensio never making the right decision in the final third or Toni Kroos not enjoying himself on Russian soil, Tuesday showed that Julen Lopetegui could only run from the demons he’d managed to avoid by getting sacked before the World Cup for so long.
When Atletico and Real Madrid last met, Atletico scored a wild 4-2 win in extra time in the UEFA Super Cup in August in Tallinn, Estonia. On Saturday at the Bernabeu, no one won the Madrid Derby — except maybe Barcelona.
In a fairly tame Madrid Derby, neither side could find a way to score in a 0-0 draw. Atletico will take the road point (it hasn't lost in the Bernabeu in six years), but Real will rue the chance to go atop the LaLiga table.
Barca was having a hard time on Saturday, trailing in the game against Athletic de Bilbao until almost the 80th minute. They were better than the vascos, but couldn't manage to beat Athletic's goalkeeper Unai Simon and showed (once again) that its defense struggles by being overexposed by a midfield that does not make it to support them.
Lost in all the hullabaloo surrounding the defeats that Barcelona and Real Madrid suffered yesterday was the fact that Villarreal’s Pablo Fornals put on one of the most exquisite 15-minute displays of football the game has ever seen.
It’s not 15 minutes of consecutive footballing brilliance, but once you see the highlights you’ll understand.
Barcelona players are not used to losing, especially in LaLiga. Last season, the Blaugrana lost just once in league play. Barcelona lost 19 games in the last five seasons combined — the same number Leganés lost last season alone.
So when Leganés scored a stunning 2-1 victory over Barcelona on Wednesday, maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised the Barça stars didn’t know how to handle defeat.