Anyone watching Barcelona take on 16th place Tenerife yesterday might agree that, were it not for the excellent goalkeeping of Barcelona's Victor Valdes and blatant misses by Tenerife's Nino and Luna, the score of the yesterdays game would not have been 5-0 in favor of Barcelona.
The absence of Gerard Pique, who did not even make the roster due to injury, was sorely missed in the Barcelona backfield yesterday, especially during the beginning of the first half. Rafa Marquez, not seeing very many minutes this season seemed quite lost in his position, failing to pick up loose marks left by Puyol and Dani Alves.
However, the defense can not take all of the blame for the sloppy beginning to yesterday game. Barcelona's best defense lies in their astounding ability to control ball control, rarely letting the opponent having more than a few touches on the ball. Yesterday, at least before Messi's goal, Barcelona's passing game could only be described at mediocre at best. It took several minutes and several close misses by the Tenerife strikers before Barcelona was even able to get the ball out of its defensive half.
The saving grace came, once again, from Senor Messi, who connected with Bojan in the 36th minute to provide the wakeup call that Barcelona needed to regain their grasp on the game. After his goal Barcelona seemed to awaken from the sluggish play that gripped them for the 35 minutes before the goal happened, and Tenerife never stood a chance.
Twice more Bojan would assist Messi for a goal, once in the 46th minute, and again in the 75th with a slick side pass that slipped right past Tenerife goalkeeper Aragoneses. Messi in turn placed a free kick perfectly for Puyol, who made the score 2-0 in the 44th minute.
Luna provided an own goal in the 85th that capped off the score at 5-0, but again, Barcelona was very lucky it did not have to come from behind to claim the three points from this weekend.
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