Liga - Barcelona youngsters beat Sociedad
Barcelona were not at their brilliant best but still did enough to see off Real Sociedad 2-1 in their Liga clash at Camp Nou.
Manager Pep Guardiola, with an eye on injuries and perhaps the midweek Copa del Rey semi-final second leg against Valencia, fielded a young midfield including Jonathon Dos Santos, Cristian Tello, Thiago Alcantara and Cesc Fabregas.
But the decision appeared to be vindicated when Barcelona struck early against their struggling opponents through Tello's cool ninth-minute finish.
Barcelona created a surfeit of chances only to waste them, with Lionel Messi particularly culpable.
The second goal did not come despite the typical domination of possession, and Sociedad began to press forward in the hopes of snatching an equaliser.
That looked to be beyond them when Messi finally did score with a deft finish from Dani Alves's cross after 72 minutes - only for Carlos Vela, on loan from Arsenal, to immediately pull one back at the other end.
It set up a tense finale, but Barcelona held on to claim all three points and close back to within seven points of league leaders Real Madrid, who had earlier ground out a 1-0 victory away at Getafe.
Much of the focus in the match was on Messi, who had been below par in midweek against Valencia, and despite a telling contribution of a goal and an assist, was not on top form tonight.
He missed a simple looking chance after just four minutes from close range after Fabregas's run ended with the ball deflecting straight into the Argentine's path.
Not long after, his interplay with Thiago put him clean through, only to give the impressive Sociedad keeper Claudio Bravo the chance to save.
In the second half there were two more more gilt-edged chances which went begging, with Tello picking him out just before the hour only for Messi to shoot tamely, while four minutes later he somehow failed to get his shot away until it was far too late having rounded the keeper and looked sure to score.
But the star of the show was the 20-year-old Tello, who played on the left-hand side of a three-man attack and caused chaos down the flank on his first start for the club in La Liga.
His finish showed real composure, and his pace was a constant worry for Carlos Martinez.
Sociedad had their chances, with Antoine Griezmann testing Victor Valdes after just five minutes. The Frenchman should have done better after the visitors went route one in the second half, but having got himself past the defence, fired straight at Valdes.
The second goal, which demonstrated Barcelona at their fluent best, should have settled the contest, but Vela and Griezmann caught the champions napping to reduce the deficit immediately.
Barcelona will be relieved to seal the victory after a run of three consecutive draws in all competitions, but were hit by a possible injury blow to Sergio Busquets late on.
Busquets, who only came on after 76 minutes, jarred his knee in a tackle and had to be substituted off again just eight minutes later.
The signs were, however, that Guardiola has some promising young replacements waiting to step into the breach should the injury rule him out over the next matches.
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@ JonathanA if you call madrid and valencia easy teams than you are right, as I recall Barca has played against them with players like Pinto, Thiago, Cuenca and I don't see madrid or valencia having the guts to play Barca with their backup keeper or youth players.
@Farhad...Dont be
i am sure barca wil lreach the title even without ineasta
And by the way realamplified, the title is not yet assured, keep your balls in your pants for now. 7 points with all those games left to play is no reason for early fireworks. Neither does it mean madrid is now dominant, the league is the only competition where you can be bashed by a superior team and still win it, no other competition is like that, as you ve seen in the copa, as you ll see in the champions league. Madrid have the advantage, no doubt! Have they won the league? Its still a dream! By the way, congratulations for Zambia's progress in the nations cup, I hope you are no longer embarrassed to be Zambian, and have stopped claiming to be from Cape town.
No real difference between dream team and realamplified, why dont you exchange phone numbers or email addresses
Dream team stop embarassing barcelona with ur ignorant comment. Barcelona only play 2nd team against easy team. Real madrid play callejon who is from the academy. Khedira, di maria, marcelo, alonso are all injured dumbass
here we go again ......someone is going crazy out there......who else but barca NR2.........7points behind real......and you start saying its the refs who gave real that?.......come on boy wake up!......this is real madrid we are talking about.......i had long before warned you about your mocking real fans......that one day you will cry.......you see now ....shame poor boy.......where is mama to confort you?.....hahahahahaha......7points ahead.......real 4life
I have never seen a human so perversed,myopic,bigotic,addictive,full of hate,uninformed,prejudicial,uncivilised,stupid,foolish, useless,full of lack of constructive ideas,block headed as this barcelona dream team two.you are a disgrace to d human race if at all u are even human.barcelona dont even know u,but u make it look as if tho u are d club itself.animals like u only succeed in bringing more enemies to a great club like barca
Those loser madrid fans that say Barca hardly wins, I would love to see madrid play without higuain, benzema, ozil, alonso, and may other players that Barca were missing. Barca are missing Villa, Pedro, Sanchez, Iniesta, Affelay, and Iniesta was rested.And if mourinhoe is so special he would be man enough to play some youth players but he is not so special, he only goes to teams that can buy world class players, even in the bench, because he does not know how to raise youth players or even give them a chance to play. If he is so special why is he not man enough to play his backup keeper for the spanish cup matches or against Barcelona? Pep and Barca are that good that they still have the guts to play madrid or any other team with their back up keeper and their youth players. I would love to see gaynaldo play with two madrid youth players up front and remove ozil and alonso and put another youth player in midfield and we will see madrid flop. They hardly beat teams with all their key players and with the refs help.
The ref once again was a discrace, once again the ref goes against Barcelona, 3 clear penalties not give to Barca, 2 handballs and one back pass. A clear goal not give to Barca as Alves was inside the goal and should have stood, on the other hand refs are at the rescue for madrid, allowing them to use their hands everytime they need too like higuain against valencia now ugly pepe against getafe and no penalty once again. Plus the ref did not even give a foul or a red card for the dirty tackle by the real sociedad player on Busquet. Anyways we won I am happy, Visca Barca. I guess perez madrids president joining the royal spanish football federation and madrid players and mourinhoe crying about the refs has paid off for them, now the refs are helping madrid and hurting Barca. Not only do these madrid based clubs like royo, getafe and atletico madrid sell their games to royal madrid, but when sometimes they decide not to sell their games, the ref is there to make sure that royal madrid wins. Like against atletico madrid, they were ahead against royal madrid and the ref came to the rescue by giving not one red card but two red card and a penalty in favor of royal madrid. I am not too worried about la liga but I know if we meet royal madrid in the champions league we will knock them out once again, they have no chance against the mighty Catalans.
زنده باد مسی!
Youngsters like Messi, Valdes, Busquets, Puyol? Trying to put a positive spin on a narrow win?
i think messi should be rested, it's obvious he's struggling, pep should rest him even if messi want's to play otherwise he's going burn out or worse still get a long term injury.
Om my God, superb Barcelona, with brilliant Fabregas, Messi what's up.Utilise the csoring chances!!!!!!!!!FROM Barcelona Fun Mike in Uganda
@3
read nicely it says barca youngsters not barca debuters. and tello cuenca thiago fabregas messi all are young max age 24, they r just a lot experienced and good. so rread well.
Hola Don Guardiola, no te preocupes para unsted es un entrnador muy buena en el mundo con sus jugadore, desero que Lional Mesi va meter más goles en la vuelta con Sociedad,
Introducing TELLO!! La Masia brings another gem for the world to marvel at!! Up Pep, Up Barca, long live La Masia, the house of football jewels!
Hello Messi, I watched your match tonghit. but, Messi you missed 3 goal. Again Lionel Messi is lionel Messi.
SOMEONE HERE IS IDIOT!!!!!!TRULY IDIOT...IM HAPPY IF HE SLEEP AND CAN'T WAKE UP ANYMORE!FROM BARCA FAN!!HAHAHAHAHAHA...
Oh! Barcelona players sluggish tonight esp. Messi numbers of opportunity missed it doesn't seems professional and you are world best footballer what's your rank? It's not a joke.You have to creat extraordinary. Why do you guys so timid to shoot from distance? What Dani Alvas did in copa match superb. You are lucky, hardly collect three point in home tie.
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