FC Barcelona traveled to Villarreal on Saturday night for matchday 21 of this season’s Spanish League. The “yellow submarines”, as they are known to their fans, are at the bottom of the table in the relegation zone and things are not looking very good for them. Of the 19 games played before facing Barcelona, they had only won four, with seven draws and eight losses.
In comparison, FC Barcelona has 13 wins, five draws and a single defeat. Also look at the number of goals: just 18 for Villarreal compared to 59 for Barcelona. So on paper it should have been an easy win for Barcelona, whose morale should have been high after knocking Real Madrid out of the Copa del Rey. during the weekend
However, football is not about statistics and it is not about fighting on paper; it’s what happens on the pitch that counts and, in the event, there were few real scoring chances. The Villarreal goalkeeper seemed to be in fine form when Barcelona were on target, and the yellow submarines’ defense was solid, so creating those chances was difficult. The first half offered few chances for Barça, and although Villarreal created several chances to attack Barcelona’s goal, ultimately nothing came of it.
As the teams exited the second half, Villarreal seemed a bit more urgent, but it was Barcelona who controlled the game. However, despite having high ball possession, they couldn’t do anything with it. It really wasn’t until the last ten minutes of the game that Barça had good chances to score and it looked like they would take all three points. However, it just didn’t happen and the match ended goalless.
The result was disappointing for Barcelona, which was already five points behind Real Madrid. With Real Madrid winning their match on Saturday, they now trail Barcelona by seven points and it is starting to look like the league is out of reach. While they are not, in theory, out of the race, it will take some poor results from Madrid to change that for them. We will have to see if misfortune will hit Madrid so hard. While their first game against Barcelona in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals was won handily by Barcelona, the second leg was not that close and indeed Barcelona were lucky to draw 2-2 and qualify; Now that they are out of the Copa del Rey, Madrid can continue to focus on domestic and European trophies.