Some say there’s no place like home. Not Barcelona. This season, they have proven to be a better team away from Montjuic, at least in results terms.
Looking only at La Liga’s away table, Barcelona are third, three points behind leaders Real Madrid and just one behind second-placed Girona.
Xavi’s side have not lost a single league game away from Montjuic, while at their temporary home, they have lost three. But although they often get better results away from home, that does not always mean the team plays better.
You can look at this statistic one of two ways. On the one hand, it can offer hope ahead of some of the tough away assignments still to come – in the remainder of the season, they have to visit Athletic Bilbao, Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Girona.
On the other hand, it is perhaps precisely because of the fact they have not yet visited the most demanding stadiums in the competition that their away record is still so good.
Saturday’s match in Vigo against Celta, despite not always being convincing, was maybe proof of the former.
Balaidos is a stadium Barcelona has always found difficult. In their last 10 visits, the Catalan team have only won twice — including this weekend.
This meeting summed up Barca’s season: they play poorly, have plenty of possession but create very little, and within a couple of passes, it seems that any team can hurt them. The team sleepwalks through the game but finally wakes up in the final stretch.
Against Celta, they once again put in an inadequate performance. They started with an atypical line-up which suggested Xavi was already thinking about the Champions League fixture against Napoli on Wednesday evening.
During the first 45 minutes, they struggled to play. There were no passes inside or between the lines and were limited mostly to short, safe ones between the centre-backs until they got bored and attempted a long pass as a change of pace.
Yamal was often left frustrated (Jose Manuel Alvarez/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
Pau Cubarsi played in the centre of defence with Ronald Araujo but played on the left of the two, something unusual for him, which made him visibly uncomfortable. He did not play out from the back in the way we have become accustomed to seeing.
Andreas Christensen, playing in midfield, was not a difference-maker either, but he was tidy with the ball and brought aggression to the team, particularly with his pressing. Frenkie De Jong was one of the few other players who offered the required intensity in those moments.
The team was slow in their play and failed to make quick passes to open up their opponents. They had only two shots on goal in the first half.
The ball was not reaching Lamine Yamal, the only player who looked like he could hurt Celta. Yet even he was able to do very little, although he did get the assist for Robert Lewandowski’s opener.
The Pole showed a quick flash of his glory years, scoring a wonderful goal just before half-time with two perfect touches and a powerful finish from the edge of the box.
Barcelona went into the break with a lead they didn’t deserve, only for Iago Aspas to equalise within 90 seconds of the restart.
“It was a lapse in concentration and Celta penalised us with a meritorious move between Larssen and Aspas,” Xavi said after the game.
Concentration problems are another thing that has blighted this team all season. Goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was clearly aware of this, calling for more focus from his team-mates at various stages of the game.
Despite that goal, the second half did bring a slight improvement in the dynamism of Barcelona’s play, but it still felt like it would take a miracle for them to leave with all three points. Once again, the players were simply not at their best.
But the miracle came. In the 97th minute, the referee pointed to the penalty spot after a foul on Yamal. Lewandowski stepped up but had his penalty saved by Vicente Guaita. Thankfully for Barcelona, VAR intervened, with the officials decreeing the kick be retaken because the Celta goalkeeper had stepped too far off his line.
The striker scored at the second time of asking and Barcelona had once again won a game in which they had often looked to be lacking ideas.
It was the 15th time in their 25 La Liga matches so far this season that Barcelona have won points in the final 15 minutes.
Also nothing new was Xavi’s surprising statement after the game.
“The win is deserved, we have to improve our concentration at the start of each half. It’s very good for our morale, to believe in the victory at the end… we did more things right than wrong, we have grown compared to the Granada game, we have seen a good Barca,” Xavi said.
Another away win will at least ease fans’ nerves ahead of the trip to Naples this week, even if there are still concerns about the cohesiveness of the team.
(Top photo: Jose Manuel Alvarez/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
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