Both Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid and Sevilla got their respective wins on Saturday. Hence, it was only natural for Barcelona to crave the 3 points that they desire the most to stay relevant in this year’s La Liga title race.
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As it is, the Blaugrana are already way behind Simeone’s men and on top of that, the Madrid side also have a game in hand. Hence, losses will not be acceptable for the Catalans if they are to fight for the title and make a comeback in this year’s La Liga race.
The game started off with Barca feeling their oppositions and trying to infiltrate the defense. Slowly but surely, the Catalans broke through. While young Illaix Moriba made some mistakes in his La Liga debut, the rest of the squad’s performance was perfect.
The Blaugranas are known to be possession-based teams thus clubs often tend to sit back and defend against them. All bottom half teams tend to do that against the La Liga giants where they try to hit them on the break. However, there was no problem as Ronald Koeman’s men absolutely sent the team back home in shambles after a massive 5-1 win.
Lionel Messi and Francisco Trincão were fantastic for the Catalans. The introduction of Pedri too quickly showed the visitors their level as the Catalans went on to grab an extremely comfortable three points. This win looked to completely boost the morale of the team ahead of the Paris Saint-Germain tie.
Facing Mauricio Pochettino’s PSG will not be easy for Koeman and his men. However, the French giants will be playing without their big threats like Neymar Jr, Angel Di Maria, and Marco Veratti.
This will slightly make things easier for the Blaugrana. Hence, this game against Alaves was extremely crucial to gain momentum. The Spanish giants look comfortable and confident ahead of their major UEFA Champions League round of 16 clash against Paris Saint-Germain.
Will Barca defeat PSG in the first-leg?