Segunda División: Recreativo Huelva 2-0 FC Barcelona B: Match Review

In very windy conditions at the Nuevo Colombino stadium Barcelona B earned their third consecutive defeat. The overall effort from the Barça youngsters was lacking from about the fifth minute on, and Recreativo Huelva made them pay with a goal in each half.

Starting XI: Jordi Masip; Ivan Balliu, Marc Muniesa, David Lomban, Carles Planas; Ilie Sanchez, Rafinha, Sergi Roberto; Kiko Femenia, Sergio Araujo, Luis Alberto

Bench: Miguel Bañuz, Sergi Gomez, Patric, Gustavo Ledes, Javier Espinosa, Joan Angel Roman, Jean Marie Dongou

Barça's early minute surge appeared to have caught Recreativo by surprise as the Blaugrana created a great chance but failed to capitalize. Balliu sent a very good cross into the danger area, where Araujo headed on goal, but was denied by the crossbar. The rebound made its way to Alberto, but his powerful header was stopped by the hosts' goalkeeper Jesús Cabrero.

After that Recreativo settled quickly, and in their first attack, in the 10th minute, Barcelona's defense failed to clear the danger. Planas failed to clear the cross from the left, which was controlled behind him by Chuli. Planas made another mistake when he allowed Chuli to dribble past, which allowed the forward enough space to fire on goal and beat Masip to the far post.

Five minutes later in was almost 2-0. Cifu sent a cross from the right wing that found Manuel Arana wide open in the middle, but his header flew just past Masip's right post. In the 28th minute Cifu was played through, behind Barcelona's defensive line, and was going all alone toward Masip from 25 yards out. But Masip read the situation perfectly and made a textbook sliding tackle to dispossess Cifu of the ball outside the penalty box.

Barcelona B started to play slightly better after the half hour mark, and they immediately found a way through Recreativo's defense. However, the final pass from Araujo lacked accuracy, which allowed the goalkeeper to gather the ball before Kiko could reach it. In the 38th minute, after a block on Rafinha's initial shot, the ball came to Ilie who powered it on goal from 30-yards out, but Corbero made an excellent save to deny the Barça B captain. Recreativo went to halftime leading by the slimmest of margins.

Barca B started the second half in good fashion, creating their first scoring opportunity just three minutes in. Roberto was left with enough space 11-yards from goal, but his attempt sailed high and wide. Chuli almost made Barcelona pay for the miss the very next minute, but Masip made a very good save to deny the forward of his second goal of the game.

Ten minutes after the restart Dongou came on the pitch to replaced the largely unimpressive Araujo. Despite the attacking efforts to tie the score, the defense couldn't keep Barca in the game, and allowed Recreativo to double the lead. A corner kick was taken short to Ángel Montoro, who sent a good cross in front of Masip's goal. There Jesús Berrocal easily rose above Lomban to head the ball past Masip, who was caught out of position.

Sensing that Barcelona are running out of time Eusebio made a double substitution in 73rd minute, bringing on Espinosa and Roman for defensively oriented Ilie and Planas. But that didn't help Barcelona much, as just three minutes later Chuli could've put the game completely out of reach. But Masip, who is having a very good season, stopped Chuli's shot.

Barcelona created a couple half-chances until the end of the game, however, in all but one of them Cabrero's clean sheet was never threatened. The only real chance came in added time when Espinosa fired one off the post from 20-yards out. The final score of the game therefore remained 2-0 in favor of the home side, and Barcelona B's scoreless was extended to two games.

Barcelona B will look to end the both streaks, the losing and scoreless streak, on Saturday when they will host CD Mirandés at the Mini Estadi.