Barca vs Granada: Granada holds Barcelona to a draw in a game bookended by two goals. After going 1-0 up very early on Granada had little interest in attacking with the home side dominating possession. The visitors largely held Barca at bay until Araujo salvaged a point for the hosts late on.
There was no doubt about dominating the game on Barca’s side, as expected they had 78% of the possession. But unfortunately, the necessary finish did not come as expected. Granada showed their determination to win in the 2nd minute of the game by scoring the first goal.
Barca was only half-cleared Escudero’s corner and the left-back received the ball in the box. He hangs up a cross into the far post where Duarte was firm to take the lead and headed the ball in the back of the net.
After the goal, the whole half tried and run for Barca with only chances coming their way but no goals. Granada defended well to try and take a clean sheet.
Granada was pleased with how that first half went. After Duarte gave them the lead in the second minute, the visitors concentrated on making Barca’s life difficult, staying compact behind the ball and wasting time at every opportunity. Barca have had a few chances to equalise though. They had to step things up after the break. (Barca vs Granada)
The whole second half was not goal chances for Barca only mere possession. Both sides made a lot of substitutions to improve their team. At the 78th minute the whole Barca team for piling forward to get a goal.
90th minute was the time that Barca got what they wanted, a most awaited goal to draw the match. It came from Araujo’s feet. He headed a fine header in the bottom corner of the net from Gavi’s corner.
Barcelona have lost two of their last four matches against Granada in LaLiga (W2), as many defeats as in their previous 28 matches against them in the competition before this (W23 D3 L2).
At home, Barcelona have won 24 of their 25 matches against Granada in LaLiga, with the only exception coming in their loss in their last meeting at Camp Nou in the competition, a 1-2 defeat last April.
Barcelona have won each of the last seven games they have played on a Monday in LaLiga since a 3-4 loss in January 1998 against Valencia. They are in the seventh position on the LaLiga table, while Granada have won none of the last seven they have played on this day of the week in the competition (D3 L4) are 17th.
Koeman on 1-1 draw. Barca vs Granada :
“We changed our style a little bit,” Koeman said. “The spaces were out wide, not in the middle. We went with Pique, De Jong, and Araujo, and from one of those crosses we got the draw.”
“If you see the list of players, what do you do? Play tiki-taki? Tiki-taki when there are no spaces?” said Koeman.
“Look at our squad list,” he said. “We did what we could. We don’t have the players from the tiki-taka days. We have to play with our own style.
“I think we did well and, with some more time, we could have won. The basic system was 4-3-3 in the first half, then I had to make changes based on what I had on the bench.
“This isn’t the Barcelona of eight years ago. That’s the way it is. With Ansu [Fati] and [Ousmane] Dembele it’s different because we have more depth.”
We did what we had to do. We tried to win another way. We don’t have players one-on-one or with speed. We’re talking… I’m not going to say more because it seems I have to argue about everything.” (Barca vs Granada).
While the ESPN show analyst butchered Barca with the statement, “It is painful to watch them play.”
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