Barcelona once again dropped points late in an away match.
Luis Suarez scored a brace in Barcelona’s 2-2 draw against Celta Vigo. His goals put the club in the lead but in the end they were all for naught.
The Catalans dropped two more points on the road putting them ahead of Real Madrid by one point awaiting their game against Espanyol. For all intent and purposes, it put their title hopes on life support.
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The Uruguayan striker was asked to explain the team’s poor away from in his post-match interview.
"“I think that’s what the coaches are for, to analyze these situations. We are the ones who have to give our all on the pitch. Away from home, we’re dropping points that we don’t usually do in other seasons.”Source: Diario Sport"
Barcelona’s poor performances on the road are nothing new this season. It was happening under Ernesto Valverde and it hasn’t changed since Quique Setien took over.
But it’s happened too often and in similar fashion.
They take the lead once or twice in a game and then the home team manages to equalize late in the game leaving Barça with little time to try to retake the lead.
Dropped points on the road will cost them the league.
Those dropped points are ultimately going to be decisive and will be the difference between them and Real Madrid.
Placing the blame on VAR is something that the Catalan papers want to do but the fact of the matter is the club came into the restart with a two point lead on Madrid. They dropped points to Sevilla away and now to Celta away.
One can argue that Madrid have had the calls go their way and they have but if Barcelona had managed to win some of the games on the road that they drew then they wouldn’t need to focus on refereeing decisions.
It’s not like the games they lost on the road were against the bigger sides. Some of the games they drew were against teams from the bottom half of the table.
Barcelona away: unable to beat Celta, Sevilla, Madrid, Valencia, Espanyol, Real Sociedad, Levante, Granada, Osasuna, Athletic.
— Sid Lowe (@sidlowe) June 27, 2020
Again, beat the likes of Espanyol, Levante, Granada and Osasuna away and Barcelona would be well out in front by now.
Instead, they are likely going to finish second and there already appears to be tension among the players and the current coaching staff.
To answer why they continue to drop points away, Barcelona cede the initiative late in the game. They think they can absorb that pressure but we’ve seen countless times that they cannot. Coupled with tired legs or lack of fitness, a mistake will be made and they will get punished for it.
The question going forward is whether or not Setien has a future as the Barça manager. There’s been little improvement since he took over. If they are planning a squad rebuild, perhaps that will include the manager as well.