Barely survived Porto!
Well, it's been a few days since that absolutely shambolic refereeing that muddied the Liverpool Tottenham game, and I am still fuming. The VAR audio didn't make anything better, if anything it only made things much worse.
So with the risk of my head exploding, football has thankfully descended with the Champions league midweek games and Barcelona take on Porto away tonight!
So let's begin with the Lineup then shall we!
Not a lot of surprise there really. With Raphina out injured, it is expected Lamine Yamal and Ferran torres will share the minutes on the left wing. On Right not too many options, and despite Felix seeming to miss a lot of his chance in the last few games he is expected to start. This is why I would have liked either of Ansu Fati or Ez Abde to stay - to bring some competition on the right wing so that no complacency settles in Felix's game (he has that tendency).
As much as we all would like Lewandowski to get some rest from time to time, an important champions league, especially when it's arguably our toughest game of the group stage - Lewandowski has to start. Raphinha's injury doesn't help either.
At the back, we finally see Kounde and Araujo pairing again, although, it remains to be seen how Kounde fares on the left center back position. He has been nearly impenetrable at the right center back, but with Araujo back it was always expected Kounde to slot over to the left.
Cancelo is once again expected to go interior and Gavin and Romeu will form a double pivot at times. I was quite excited to see the Cancelo Yamal dynamic down the right, but for some reason that just simply hasn't clicked. Will it click today? Almost time for kickoff!
Start!
A few early mistakes from Romeu near our own box, could have been dangerous.
Romeu looking uncharacteristically shaky. This could be a troublesome night for us if he doesn't find his groove soon.
10 minutes in and Porto has made a very confident start, Barca quite complacent, lazy.
Man, Romeu looks so out of sorts tonight. Bad, bad. Not good! (Yeah, I used the band's name)!
Surprisingly, Lamine yamal gets on the ball after 11 minutes of the game. We need to be mobilizing him much more.
Don't think cancelo deserved yellow there. Anthony Taylor is one of the worst and biased referees to exist and he is already showing. Porto player literally tripped himself over. Exactly like Diogo Jota's first yellow card in that controversial Tottenham game.
I think Barca need to just take a breather and slow the game down.
Dangerous Porto attack, Ter Stegen to the rescue. Messy defending from barca.
Barca survive a close penalty call. There was a bit of a shirt pull, but don't think that was enough to call a penalty. Still, had it been called, not many could argue.
Commitment from Joao felix to create something out of nothing. Finally "some" sustained possession for barca.
Anthony Taylor man, what a disgraceful unqualified referee! I seriously don't know what are the requirements to become a referee these days, maybe some of our street dogs could replace Anthony Taylor?
Sorry, that was a bit too insulting...
...for the dogs.
Ferran Torres on for the injured Robert Lewandowski. Barca's injury woes does not seem to end.
Needless from Gavi, picked up the yellow. Unnecessary.
BArca break on the counter, great attack but we have been pinned down so much by porto that only Joao Felix and Ferran Torres was up there. Had we had more bodies up, this could have been interesting.
Porto mistake, punished ruthlessly by Ferran Torres and Barca lead against the run of play.
Had we not gone into the half time with a 1-0 lead, I would have said this was a very very disappointing half. It's still very worrying from a Barca fan's perspective. It remains to be seen how long we hold the fort in the second half.
Half time! Porto 0-1 Barcelona.
While we wait for the second half to resume, I was checking the other games that are being played. Newcastle lead PSG by 2 goals..? What 😂 Who are the PSG fans blaming now, still Messi's fault their team is shit?!! LMAO 😂 These PSG fans had it coming, suck it!
50 minutes in and 5 barca player has been booked. How long till every barca player is booked by this retarded ref?
WHAT A TACKLE BY KOUNDE! Saved our asses there! Barca's defense line breaking apart here.
GREAT TACKLE BY ARAUJO this time. We are being torn apart here.
Xavi needs to be brave here and take off either Gundogan or Romeu and bring on Fermin Lopez.
SAVE by Ter Stegen!
Sergi Roberto getting ready to come on.
At least Fermin Lopez is coming on, interestingly for Joao Felix.
Dang! Barca survive the penalty call again. This time though, I think Porto are hard done here. Very very unlucky. If it was against Barca, I'd be furious. Bad decision, bad bad decision. Porto should have had their penalty here. I remember an almost exact same decision go against us when Gavi was judged to have handballed against Getafe. I was furious. Porto fans are going to be livid with this.
Actually scratch all that. Replays show Cancelo handled the ball (after the porto player handled it first) outside the box, so wouldn’t have been a penalty anyway.
Screenshot
Gavi sent for another unnecessary foul. He needs to cool his head. Barca needs to hold the fort with 10 men for the last few minutes.
Full Time! Porto 0-1 Barcelona.
What a bad performance from Barca. Porto extremely unlucky here. How Barca get away with 3 points here, we will never understand. You just gotta feel for porto, they gave everything on the field. Bad refereeing. A lot of bad decisions went against Barca too, but that second non-penalty call has to be the worst of the lot.
Well played Porto!
Porto really played very well. Maybe they deserved more.
Yes, agreed!