Sporting 1 - Barca 1

“We can lose or draw if that’s how it is. Insisting, insisting and insisting”. Those were the words of a somewhat disappointed Pep Guardiola after witnessing the conclusion of an extraordinary run of wins by his mesmerizing outfit.

It was never going to be an easy game for Barca after all there was a multitude of factors motivating Sporting. Primarily of course they are fighting in a relegation battle and the prospect of anything against arguably the best football team to have ever stepped onto a pitch (last week’s record breaking victory adds further weight to that statement) would be tantamount to giant killing and as well as the valuable points, provide a timely boost of confidence and injection of vigor to their campaign. Not to mention of course the fact that Sporting are a ‘Real’ club for those not overly familiar with this term it means just like Madrid they have a specific relationship with the ‘Royal’ family and with the humbling of Madrid at the hands of Barca still fresh in everyone’s mind there was the small matter of revenge and the restoration of regional and monarchial pride, not to mention of course they would have ‘one’ over their city rivals.

So everything was just right for the minnows to halt the steam train in its tracks. And with the mid-week internationals having affected virtually every single first team player shakeups to the starting lineup by Guardiola were inevitable and expected. Truth be told Barca never really found their normally unplayable rhythm throughout the game, the incredibly hostile atmosphere created by the Madrid based fans was clearly evident from the multitude of red and white scrunched up paper balls that littered the sideline and corner spots. “Give them a break!” I thought to myself, after all this group of players was largely responsible for ensuring that the achingly elusive Fifa World Cup Trophy finally found its way to sunny Spain.

With the absence of Sergi Busquets from the holding position which he has made his own over the last few seasons there was genuine concern considering the eerie statistic somewhere along the line of Barca never having lost a game in which he had started! So the sirens were well and truly on, and when Barral received a pass only 15 minutes in and found himself with a few yards on Pique, he skipped down the line and went on to score an excellent solo effort (although Pique should really have done better) it was clear that this was now going to be a case of ‘Parking the Bus’. After all, Sporting now found themselves in an enviable and quite rare position of leading against Barca which was clearly manifest across the face of their colorful manager Manuel ‘Manolo’ Preciado.

Nonetheless, the Blaugrana started to find some rhythm and began moving the ball around more smoothly, but it was clear that they were shaken and continued to be cautious of the counter attack. To Sporting’s credit it appeared that they were more successful than all other teams put together this season in forcing Barca to back track as Pique and Milito found themselves resorting to the relative safety of Valdes on a number of occasions.

There is one particular principle of the ‘Total Football’ philosophy which simply states the following, ‘as long as you have the ball your opponent cannot score’. This is a principle which has been honed by this Guardiola team and is reflected in the possession statistics which are regularly in the 70’s in % terms and the goals conceded stats which are equally impressive. So in the rare event that you do loose the ball, you do absolutely everything to win it back. Another area where the team has been very strong in recent seasons as 2 or 3 players swarm around the opposing player and win possession almost as soon as they’d lost it. This was the case in the 79^th minute as Messi wrestled with the Sporting back line and won possession before pushing through a perfectly timed through ball to Villa who left the stadium in sheer silence. Even old ‘Manolo’ had to come down to earth and pinch himself, I mean come on did he really expect three points from Barca?!

The front three continued to press with the arrival of both Pedro and Bojan bringing some fresh pace and Dani Alves continuing to cause a nuisance of himself down the right, there were a couple of late chances were the team could have grasped a late victory, but in all fairness taking into account the circumstances the result was a fair one and made for a thoroughly entertaining affair.

Ultimately, despite Guardiola’s disappointment at not taking three points, Barca remain 8 points clear at least until this evening, the potential banana skin post international break could have hurt a lot more and the pressure of maintaining the winning run has ended so all in all a good place to be heading into a Champions League clash mid week. And although they may have been rejoicing in El Molinon last night, the celebrations across town would have been a lot less muted after all Mr Mourinho will concede that this was not a case of Barca dropping two points but much more a case of Barca winning an important point as history shows time and time again that these results come May always make the difference.