Segunda División: FC Barcelona B 3-1 Real Madrid Castilla: Match Review

In front of a sold out crowd, Barcelona B came back from a one goal deficit to beat Real Madrid Castilla 3-1. Alvaro Morata started the scoring, but after a red card to Álex Fernández, Barcelona turned the game around with two goals from Sergio Araujo and a solitary goal from Gerard Deulofeu.

Starting XI: Jordi Masip; Ivan Balliu, David Lomban, Carles Planas, Alejandro Grimaldo; Gustavo Ledes, Cristian Lobato, Rafinha; Sergio Araujo, Luis Alberto, Gerard Deulofeu.

Bench: Miguel Bañuz, Sergi Gómez, Ilie Sanchez, Javier Espinosa, Kiko Femenia, Joan Angel Román, Jean Marie Dongou

Coach Eusebio Sacristan fielded a pretty straightforward line-up, with the same defensive and attacking lines as the game before. The only change was in the midfield where Rafinha return after a very disappointing stint with the Brazil U-20 team. Rafinha's return to the starting line-up meant that Espinosa would once again take a seat on the all too familiar bench.

Castilla started the game with controlling possession, and as a direct result of that the first chance of the game went their way. After just three minutes Morata supplied a good cross to the middle where Álex was a split second too late to redirect the ball into the net. Four minutes later Juanfran fired a decent shot on goal, but Masip was up to the task. Castilla continued to dominate the game, and nearly took the lead in the ninth minute, however, Masip did very well to steer Denis Cheryshev's shot out for a corner kick. The ensuing corner was well cleared well by the defense.

Barça's first opportunity of the contest came in the 13th minute, when Alberto sent a good free kick from the side and found Lomban wide open in the middle. The defender headed on goal, but Tomás Mejías was in good position to make the save. Barcelona B slowly started to put more pressure on the Castilla defense, but despite some good plays by Deulofeu and Alberto the visitors' defense held it's ground.

Mejías had to make a very good save in the 29th minute. Nice ball movement in the final third opened up some space for Alberto on the edge of the box, from where he fire a good shot on goal, but Mejías made a fingertip save. Alberto had another opportunity to put Barcelona in front just two minutes later, after a lovely pass from Grimaldo, but once again he was stopped by the keeper.

And just when it appeared that a Barcelona B goal was in the air, Real Madrid Castilla took the lead. Juanfran sent a perfect cross from the right side, and in the middle Morata beat Lomban for position and calmly headed the ball out of Masip's reach and into the net.

Not discouraged by conceding, Barcelona went immediately back on offense, however, they were continuously stopped by Mejías, who was having an excellent first half. Mejías made sure that Castilla went to halftime with the lead, almost single-handedly stopping the potent Barcelona attack in the final minutes of the half.

Second half started with no changes to the lineups and no changes to the flow of the game. Barça continued with the pressure, and from a corner kick both Rafinha and Gustavo could've scored, but neither managed to direct their header on goal. Soon after, Alberto played the ball back to Grimaldo who missed a nearly wide open net.

In the 56th minute Araujo was doing some nice dribbling near the left corner flag, when he was dragged down by Álex. The two then exchanged some words and the shenanigans ended with Álex pushing Araujo to the ground with a shove to the face. The referee saw clearly what happened and "rewarded" the Castilla midfielder with a red card.

With the man advantage the hosts were able to create scoring chance after scoring chance, the first one coming in the 63rd minute. Deulofeu was given a lot of space on the right side of the box, but Mejías kept the shot out with a good save. However, despite having an excellent game, Mejías wasn't able to stop Barcelona from scoring two minutes later. Lobato was looking for Balliu on the opposite side of the penalty area, but a Castilla defender blocked the pass, steering the ball to Araujo on the edge of the box. From there the Argentine picked his spot and beat the keeper to the far post.

Immediately after the goal Kiko replaced Balliu at right-back, giving the B team a much more attacking oriented option from the backline.

Four minutes later Barcelona took the lead, and again the scorer was Araujo. Lobato made a nice run down the middle, passed the ball to Alberto on the left side, who made a beautiful pass to supply Araujo who made no mistake from close range.

Unlike in games before, Barcelona B this time didn't start playing defensively after taking the lead, which led to another goal. In the 78th minute Luis Alberto sent a free kick to the six-yard box where Morata played the ball with his hand, resulting in a penalty kick. Deulofeu stepped up and calmly converted the kick, sending Mejías the wrong way, to double the lead.

Barcelona then took the foot off the gas, bringing the game to an uneventful end. In the remainder of the game Eusebio made two more substitutions, replacing (Man of the Match) Araujo and Deulofeu with Roman and Dongou.

Despite the win Barça B didn't move up in the Segunda standings, remaining in fifth place. However, the youngsters are now only three points away from second place. The B team will on Saturday look to extend their nine game unbeaten run again CE Sabadell FC. The Catalan Derby will take place at the Nova Creu Alta stadium, just 14 miles from Barcelona.