5 Big Talking Points from Barcelona’s defeat to Granada
September 23, 2019
The Blaugrana lost their second match of the La Liga season, after a shock 2-0 defeat at Granada that addressed their numerous flaws.
Barcelona went to Los Carmenes without winning an away match this season and left with that statistic still firmly intact.
An early goal was scored by Ramon Azeez after a dreadful error from Junior Firpo. After conceding the goal, Barca failed to react and play with resolve. The Catalan giants were completely devoid of ideas in attack during the first half, although they had Luis Suarez, De Jong and Antoine Griezmann on the pitch.
Messi and Ansu Fati were brought on in second half in place of Firpo and Carles Perez, but, however, Granada showed more attacking threat.
Granada scored another goal in the second half when Arturo Vidal handled in the area shortly after he was substituted. Alvaro Vadillo converted the resulting penalty and, even with 24 minutes left on the clock, a 2-0 lead was sealed by Granada.
Here are some big lessons from the Granada match.
Barcelona have a terrible away form
Barcelona’s poor form away from home goes even further back, as they have not won any of their last eight matches away from home.
They lost five of those eight to Celta, Liverpool, Athletic, Granada, and Valencia in the Copa del Rey final and drew three against Eibar, Osasuna, and Dortmund.
2. Griezmann looks lost Barca
The new Barcelona forward has highly ineffective for Barcelona. He has failed to register a single shot on target in any of his away matches. He wasn’t able to involve himself in the game and failed to link up with his teammates effectively.
3. Valverde back under pressure
Ernesto Valverde somehow was able to avoid getting sack last season despite horribly bottling another Champions League match against Liverpool and losing in the Copa del Rey final to Valencia.
However, the pressure is very much back on the Barcelona boss after defeat to Granada continued the club’s miserable start to the season.
4. Junior Firpo misses the chance to impress
Junior Firpo made his first La Liga start for Barcelona against Granada after Jordi Alba picked up an injury. However, the left-back failed to impress in the role.
The left-back’s costly mistake gave Granada the opening goal with just a minute on the clock and left Barcelona without a clean sheet in the La Liga.
5. Messi can no longer solve Barça’s problems
Naturally, the Catalans brought on Messi in the second half to bail them out out of the situation, as he has done so many times before, but there was nothing the forward could do to prevent a defeat.
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This article is brought to us by our Sports Writers Club resident columnist – Collins Michael Nwokolo. Follow him on Twitter and Pinterest.
