In the early kick-off Tottenham were pegged back to 2-2 in a draw against PSV Eindhoven and are up against it. Rafinha broke the deadlock and put Barcelona in front who neatly finished off a Luis Suarez through ball. Ernesto Valverde's side were without talisman Lionel Messi and the injured striker watched on in the stands as Jordi Alba then killed the game eight minutes from time after placing Ivan Rakitic's ball into the corner.
Lionel Messi was an animated Nou Camp spectator as Barcelona beat Inter 2-0 to all but qualify for the Champions League knockout stage.
Watching with his son Thiago, right arm in a sling and left raised to celebrate goals from Rafinha and Jordi Alba, he saw a Barcelona side, ordinary at times without him, but still too much for their opponents.
The morning papers in Barcelona had demanded that there be ’11 Messis’. That was asking a lot but they never looked like losing and have maximum points at the halfway point of the group stage.
Rafinha (left) celebrated after breaking the deadlock and putting Barcelona a goal up against Inter Milan at the Nou Camp
Jordi Alba scored the second goal of the game to put it to bed with eight minutes remaining after a hard-fought clash
The 25-year-old Brazilian latched onto Luis Suarez's through ball and made no mistake with his decisive finish
Suarez jumped on Rafinha's back as Ernesto Valverde's side turned their possession into an opening goal
Rafinha is familiar with the opposition having spent time out on loan with Inter but he made them pay in the first half
Philippe Coutinho gave his compatriot a hug as Samir Handanovic was forced to pick the ball back out of his net
Rafinha scored the first goal of the game for Barcelona after a move that started with the goalkeeper.
Inter had their first chance on the quarter hour mark when Ivan Perisic got around Sergio Roberto and Mauro Icardi got in front of Gerard Pique but could not keep his shot down.
Barcelona responded immediately with Clement Lenglet heading Philippe Coutinho’s corner straight at Samir Handanovic.
Barcelona were missing Messi and the decision to replace him in the starting XI with Rafinha instead of the less predictable Ousmane Dembele at first looked like the wrong one.
Dembele’s anarchy has him in Ernesto Valverde’s bad books but safe choice Rafinha was not troubling Inter despite seeing plenty of the ball. One weak shot easily dealt with by Handanovic and then another replica after he had been teed-up by Luis Suarez summed up his first 20 minutes.
Lionel Messi is sidelined with a broken arm and watched the game with his son in the stands at the Nou Camp
Alba polished off Ivan Rakitic's pass and wheeled away in celebration against the deflated Italian side
Alba finished off from a relatively tight angle into the bottom right corner of the net past the diving Handanovic
Barcelona wrapped up their win in the final ten minutes and the victory has them sitting atop Group B
In Messi's stead, Suarez put in an impressive performance and tormented the Inter Milan defenders
But he kept going and when the reward came it was sweet against a team that didn’t want to sign him in the summer after he spent six months there on loan last season. They did not want to pay in August, they were paying now.
Suarez, the architect of so many of Messi’s goals put the ball invitingly into the space just in front of Rafinha and he attacked it with a left foot volley past Handanovic for 1-0. He had started the move spraying the ball wide to Suarez, and he had finished it in style.
It was his first goal in 18 Champions League appearances. Messi was out of his seat in the stands raising his left arm, his right in a sling, to salute the goal. The replacement had done his job and found the net.
At the halfway stage of the UEFA Champions League, FC Barcelona are one of just three teams that have managed to take the maximum points out of their first three encounters for the fifth time in a decade.
A workmanlike performance on Wednesday night was enough to see off an Inter Milan side that failed to rise to the occasion, with goals in each half, one from Rafinha and one from Jordi Alba, ensuring that the first of a series of games without the injured Leo Messi worked out just fine.
Rafinha on target
The game wasn’t quite as action-packed as we might have anticipated. Samir Handanovic’s gloves weren’t even truly tested until he had a powering Clement Lenglet header to deal with on 22 minutes.
With Inter keeping it tight at the back and looking for Mauro Icardi on the break, it wasn’t easy for the home side to find a way through. But Rafinha, the man tasked with the ominous job of filling in for Messi in the frontline, was getting into plenty of positions and it was he who delivered the goal when it finally came.
It was Luis Suárez that we mainly had to thank. His delightful through ball found the Brazilian in the sweetest of spots, and the latter poked it home.
Alba makes it two
Inter needed to step it up a gear, and that’s what they tried to do after the break. But to little avail. Almost all the relevant football was still being played inside their own half.
Arthur and Sergio Busquets were commanding in midfield, Suárez was everywhere, Philippe Coutinho rattled one onto the crossbar, Ivan Rakitic tried his trademark punts from long range…
It was a delight to watch, and the more ambitious of the two sides deserved further reward. It finally came when a fine assist from Rakitic found Jordi Alba. The latter slotted home with a left-footed finished worthy of the applauding Messi in the stands.
And that was the job done. One win from any of the three remaining matches, and that’s Barça safely through to the last sixteen.
MATCH FACTS AND TABLE
Barcelona:
Ter Stegen, Roberto, Piqué, Lenglet, Alba, Rakitic, Busquets, Arthur (Vidal),Rafinha (Semedo), Suárez, Coutinho
Unused substitutes:
Dembélé, Cillessen, Silva de Oliveira, El Haddadi, Brandáriz
Bookings: Suarez
Goals: Rafinha (32), Alba (82)
Inter Milan:
Handanovic, D'Ambrosio, Skriniar, Miranda, Asamoah, Vecino, Brozovic, Candreva (Politano), Valero (Martinez), Perisic (Keita), Icardi
Unused substitutes:
Vrsaljko, de Vrij, Ranocchia, Padelli
Bookings: Skriniar, Brozovic, Martinez
Referee: Ovidiu Hategan
PSV Eindhoven 2-2 Tottenham Hotspur
The other game in the group was an incident packed encounter that produced a draw that will have done neither side’s chances must good in Group B.
Mexican Hirving Lozano put the Dutch side ahead after 29 minutes, but Lucas Moura pulled Spurs level just ten minutes later and the Londoners were leading when Harry Kane headed home after the break.
But Mauricio Pochettino's side threw it all away in the final minutes. Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was sent off, and then Luuk de Jong equalised with three minutes left.
It all means that the two sides have just a point each to show for their efforts so far in the group. Time is running out if either them wants to make up lost ground on Barça, who have the full nine points, and second placed Inter with six.
0 comments:
Post a Comment