Well, that’s exactly what happened at the Nou Camp yesterday morning (AEDT), 67 minutes and 20 seconds into the second leg UEFA Champions League 3-1 win over Arsenal.
It was Barca’s second on the night, a wonderfully constructed goal involving rapid movement of the ball from left to right and back through the middle, patience, a penetrating and decisive run on the ball, cunning movement off it and a subtle one-touch final ball.
Yet it didn’t involve one solitary touch from the world’s best player, Messi, who watched it all unfold from his spot on the left side of Barca’s attack.
Instead, it was a move orchestrated and finished by their midfield maestro, Xavi, who was on the ball four times during the sequence, and had 15 of the team’s 44 touches (more than a third).
While it was Iniesta who burst forward with a seven-touch dribble that drew the Arsenal defenders and created the space for Xavi to ghost into the box unmarked, it was the skipper who spent the most time on the ball, head up, looking for an opening, conducting the flow of the traffic.
Apart from Iniesta’s dribble, there were no more than five touches at any one point, everything short and sharp.
With nothing on down one side, Barca switched it over to the right, the ball always on the ground. When they hit a cul-de-sac down the right, the ball came back, through the middle, for Iniesta, Villa and Xavi to impart their magic.
For those who love the finer technical detail in football, here’s a breakdown of the passing sequence, including the number of touches taken.
1. Abidal header down to Iniesta from an Alumina free-kick (1 touch)
2. Iniesta pass back to Adriano at left back (1)
3. Adriano square ball to Xavi (5)
4. Xavi square ball out to the right to Busquets (5)
5. Busquets forward ball to Pedro (2)
6. Pedro back to Mascherano (2)
7. Mascherano short pass to Xavi (2)
8. Xavi back out to Busquets on the right (4)
9. Busquets down the line to Alves (2)
10. Blocked from getting forward down the line, Alves square ball to Pedro (2)
11. Pedro, with pressure at his back, return pass to Alves (1)
12. Alves back to Busquets (1)
13. Busquets square to Xavi (2)
14. Xavi square to his left to Iniesta, before running around him (4)
15. Iniesta dribbles straight through the middle, using left and right foot, before feeding Villa (7)
16. Villa caresses the ball into the path of Xavi with in-step (1)
17. Xavi takes a touch, settles and slides it under Sagna (with a deflection) and past Alumina (2)
Follow Tony on Twitter @TonyTannousTRBA
Ben of Phnom Penh
Guest
actually Twatter, the beauty and possession rates were discussed. Arsenal go lucky; that's football. Hoping for luck in succession proved fatal.
fisher price
Guest
Spot on. Wenger had reason to think Arsenal would get on top in the last 20 mins again.
fisher price
Guest
Like every manager.
Twatter
Guest
It's a very cunning ploy the Catalans use, they Aresenal didn't play football, they NEGLECTED the principles of football ( doesn't everybody get accused of that their) Chelsea ,Man Utd, Inter Milan the list goes on and wouldn't attack, they couldn't they Arsenal were technically deficient once obtaining the ball ,and the ball was quickly lost/ won back by Barca . Nothing changes with Barca they have a possesion rettention rate of 69 /70 % in every game they play, even back at the emirates and even again at the emirates last year where it looked even worse for the Gunners. That people will rattle of even more stats not one shot at goal , Arsenal only had three shots at goal at the emirates where again they were clearly technically outplayed score 2-1 to the arsenal ( the possesion rates and beauty didn't get rolled out then) by barca. Just a clarification my judgement maybe somewhat impaired in my assesment of the match in having an interest in one of the teams (dont laugh). Footnote Arsenal lost the League Cup roughly 13 days ago, and now crash out of the Champions League, this weekend their off to old trafford for the F.A Cup potentially thats three cups in 20 days that they could be knocked out of, but that wont be happening will it Fussball.
Fivehole
Guest
Wenger has turned whinging into an Artform. But when his side transgresses... somehow he doesn't see it, or was distracted.
Brian
Guest
I agree. Yes Barca's a better team, but Wenger had a clear second half plan to open the game up - knowing full well that if the 2nd half ended 2-2 he would go through. He was 1-0 up when Van Persie was sent off. In 2009 Chelsea also played similarly, and almost to perfection except for some bad refereeing and a late Iniesta strike. I think only Chelsea or Real Madrid from those left can stop Barca
pete4
Guest
Interesting point... Mourinho's Cited Genius Is Wenger's Alleged Stupidity I'm expecting to be a lone voice on this site, but did any of those complaining about Arsenal's "cowardly" performance watch the way Inter got through last year? Go watch the Nou Camp leg of that tie again - it's uncannily similar. Inter realised what Arsenal did - that Barcelona press so hard and so high up the pitch to try and force teams in to errors close to their own 18 yard line. The trick Inter pulled off, and Arsenal almost did, is NOT to have the ball - to keep your attacking players in their defensive positions and try and give the ball back as close to the half way line as possible, forcing Barca to build their attacks from further back. The idea being that if you can hang on, the last half hour of the game will open up as Barca inevitably tire. The risk is that you're already 3-0 down (as most Spanish teams find out) but at 1-1, Arsenal would have expected to be able to introduce some pace (Arshavin) and run through tired legs for 30 minutes to look for vital away goals. The game was ruined by the sending off because the plan that Arsenal had stuck to (and defended incredibly bravely - how many clear cut chances did Barca have in the first half?) was suddenly not viable, through no fault of their own. Yes, Barca might still have won, but Arsenal were only one goal away from pulling off precisely the heist that Mourinho was lauded to the skies for last year. http://www.football365.com/mailbox/story/0,17033,8744_6804201,00.html
Brian
Guest
If he didn't hear it it was also a pretty poor shot given there was no pressure, he didn't even hit the side netting. Notwithstanding a terrible way for the tie to be decided given there was only 1 second between the flag going up and his shot
Brian
Guest
Why can't he whinge. Last week Mourinho whinged about parkingth ebus in front of Real Madrid. MOURINHO
TomC
Guest
True, but when Arsenal did get that own goal it set up what looked like a cracking finish. Once they went down a man there was a sense of inevitability about the result. @Australian Football, look at the replay. It comes off the front of his foot. Nothing odd about the shot at all. Or about his body language. He winced after the shot. Exactly as you would after a miscue. To give a card in that situation I'd want to see really clear evidence that Van Persie was time wasting. There isn't any. Its a bad decision.
Australian Football
Roar Guru
Yes Ben---it was sensational..
Australian Football
Roar Guru
Van Persie did now the whistle had blown as the players around him heard it and stopped----everyone knows the rule---you can't kick the ball away or continue with a shot at goal after the whistle has blown. the ball was hit well away from the target as well; preventing the keeper from retrieving it quickly. Also his body language was very clear he was trying to milk some extra time wasting.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Guest
"an extremely harsh decision that killed the match for me" I mentioned on another thread however I really didn't notice any difference in the flow of the game after Van Persie was sent off. Prior to that Barcelona had almost 70% of possession with Arsenal having no shots on goal, after that they had almost 70% of possession with Arsenal having no shots on goal. It was one way traffic all night. Arsenal only had one corner, which Sergio scored from.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Guest
i was watching with an Arsenal fan and even he was blown away with that piece of footwork
TomC
Guest
Personally I think that strikers should only ever be booked for shooting after being given off-side if it is really, really clear that they are deliberately time-wasting. After all, defenders almost always throw their hands in the air to appeal and there've been instances of keepers whistling to decieve the forward. Strikers shoot on goal. Thats what they do. They shouldn't feel like they have to turn and look at the linesman when they find themselves in space. In this case, it hardly would've taken much more time to retrieve another ball from the sideline than to play it back into position. If Van Persie 'knew what he was doing' then he wasn't doing it very well. If he wanted to waste time he should have held the ball and kept dribbling, or pick it up and slowly walk it back to into place. Fussball, I'm not saying Arsenal were more deserving, or that there weren't decisions that went against Barca, or even that I believe Van Persie didn't hear the whistle (I think he's a colossal tool), but that was an extremely harsh decision that killed the match for me. Refs should be more discerning about sending players off. Incidentally, Farfan's yellow card this morning against Valencia was even more mind-boggling. I'm all for stamping out time-wasting, but not by just handing out indiscriminate yellow cards.
Australian Football
Roar Guru
Van Persie new what he was doing---he gambled and lost. The Ref was correct as hash as it appeared to be.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
TomC As soon as van Persie kicked the ball away, I was 100% certain he would get a Yellow Card. That's the same rule that has been applied dozens of times and every footballer knows he's risking a Yellow when he behaves that way. Every player, who gets booked for such an offence, blames he didn't hear the whistle. Do we believe van Persie? Well, there were 12 offside decisions in the game against 7 different players and Robert van Persie was previously flagged for off-side on another occasion during the game. Additionally, the ref blew the whistle 27 other times for fouls. Are we honestly to believe that, of the 39 times the ref blew the whistle, to stop the game ... the crowd was so loud only on that one occasion when van Persie got his yellow card? If this did occur and the crowd was so loud only on that 1 occasion when the whistle blew ... then, van Persie is the unluckiest player around! There was a clear penalty when Laurent Koscielny fouled Lio Messi, which went unpunished ... the wonderful thing about Lio Messi - and, most of the Barca players (Puyol, Alves and Pedro are exceptions) - is that he never complains or abuses the ref. He's a true gentleman on the pitch.
Don't know if have read this article TomC. But, half-touch football is on the La Masia curriculum - Xavi explains: ''When you train La Masia as a kid there are phrases drummed into you which still flit through my head during matches 19 years later. ''Charly Rexach [legendary Barç¸a striker and one-time Cruyff lieutenant] always used to yell at us: 'not one-touch football! HALF-TOUCH football'.'' Most teams practice two-touch football, one touch is elusive, dangerous and rarely perfected. But who can defend against properly executed half-touch football? (Here is the rest of Graham Hunter's article.) http://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/grow-your-own-20110204-1ah1e.html
TomC
Guest
Villa's lay-off into the path of Xavi was just about the perfect pass. Forget one-touch football. That was half-touch football. But I really can't comment on this game without noting the appalling sending off of Van Persie. Frankly, that ruined my enjoyment of the game. Barca deserved to win an even contest, but the match stopped being an even contest after that.
Worlds Biggest
Guest
Nice one Tony, brilliance once again from Barca. I can't see anyone beating them in Champions League.