La Liga: FC Barcelona draw with Deportivo La Coruna: Match Review

Barcelona’s reserve side played out a 0-0 draw against relegation-threatened Deportivo La Coruna at the Camp Nou. It was the first time in 34 league games that Barca failed to score, but the clean sheet set a new La Liga record for games without conceding in a season (19).

Gotta love these end of season games! Nothing really left to decide, line-ups reflect this, and so do the performances. Here’s where I would love to say this doesn’t apply to Barcelona…

Afraid I can’t. Don’t get me wrong, I love that the youth players got a chance. Jonathan dos Santos, Thiago, Marc Bartra, Fontas, Jeffren, they all need these chances, but it comes at a price.

Had Deportivo taken their chances better, they could have been ahead early on, but Valdes was equal to their attempts. The home team tried to up the tempo, but really lacked the flair that Xavi, Iniesta and of course Messi, bring.

Depor again came close to breaking the deadlock through Valeron, but his volley whistled past the post. Jeffren nearly scored in the first half too, after a jinking run, almost Messi-like, but his toe-poke was deflected out for a corner.

That was it for the first half, no real action at the Camp Nou. But hey, who cares? We are the Champions!

Barca started the second half with intent, but ultimately, Thiago wasted a chance to build an attack with his tame effort from 25 yards. After that, the Blaugrana turned the screw, throwing on Alves and Maxwell, for Mascherano and Abidal.

Alves didn’t take long to make an impact either, fizzing a delightful ball across the six-yard box, that Bojan nearly converted with a diving header. Still, no breakthrough, and for the first time in 34 league games, Barcelona were drawing a blank.

Bojan was playing well though, but even his individual moments of brilliance couldn’t give Barca the lead.

It seemed destined for a draw, but when a chance opened up for Xisco in added time, you couldn’t help but fear that Depor would snatch it, but Valdes, as he has all season, made the save.

So, the game destined to finish a draw, did just that.

My man of the match is Bojan, on his return from injury, he was superb, making jinking runs, incisive passes, just lacking the goals to complement it.

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