Barça B

Barça B sweat their way to victory

Collado and Nico celebrate the goal / Twitter @FCBarcelonaB
Collado and Nico celebrate the goal / Twitter @FCBarcelonaB

The B team seals the last match of the year with the first win away from home (0-1) thanks to a great free kick executed by Àlex Collado. The team suffered without the ball in the second half, but finally succeeded with an excellent team work.

Garcia Pimienta’s boys started the game dominating, with Cornellà really closed. Barça B defence was able to move the ball without pressure, but when it came to the midfield things were completely different with a very aggressive opponent. Managing an 80% possession in the first 15 minutes, any free kick was gold to both teams, and only the talent of Àlex Collado was capable of unblocking the situation.

Luckily, the local goalkeeper couldn’t stop a fantastic shot taken from the right side by the winger and Barça B earned an early advantage that would solve most of their problems. Nonetheless, Cornellà abandoned their initial strategy and started to pressure higher, trying to recover control of the match.

Arnau Comas, Mika Mármol and Iñaki Peña started to excel as the local team gained the ball, proving themselves very secure and concentrated. Meanwhile, Jandro and Nico tried to generate deep passes to Konrad, but few opportunities were created on both sides until halftime. Only Ilaix Moriba had a clear chance following a pass by Konrad, but the midfielder hit the wood.

The second half started with good sensations for Barça B, moving the ball better and faster and making it arrive to the team’s talented wingers Konrad and Collado. Despite that, around an hour into the match that momentum vanished and Cornellà started the siege on Iñaki Peña’s goal.

Again, the centre backs showed their confidence as the whole team was being pushed into their own box. The B team were extraordinarily solidary, with all the midfielders defending fiercely alongside with the defenders and Manaj trying to win some rebounds to make the team able to build offensive actions.

García Pimienta tried to sub-in midfielders like Matheus Pereira or Lucas de Vega to regain control of the match, but it didn’t work. In the end, Cornellà fell short on their effort to equal the match and Barça B survived. Important 3 points to end the year in a good way even with a different, more defensive version of the team, regularly used to control the ball most of the time.