Barça celebrate 'Sant Jordi' with a much needed win
Barça is another step closer to conquering LaLiga after defeating a brave Atlético de Madrid side on a very special day for all the Catalan supporters who were amidst the‘Diada de Sant Jordi’ celebrations.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with this tradition, on ‘Sant Jordi’ men gift roses to women in exchange for a book. An event that mobilises around a million people who crowd Barcelona in search of books and roses among the hundreds of stands distributed in the streets of the city centre.
It’s a tradition Catalans are very fond of, so no wonder there were many complaining when LaLiga announced that Barça would be playing a home game in the middle of the afternoon on ‘Sant Jordi’.
To make matters worse, the match also coincided with Barcelona’s biggest tennis tournament, the ‘Trofeu Comte de Godó’. Both Barça and the tennis tournament organisers filed their complaints, but they weren’t capable of persuading LaLiga to change their stance.
As a consequence of all these events coinciding, “only” 80.965 spectators were present at the Camp Nou, ranking 14th this season among all competitions. A home game with the potential to practically sell out all the available tickets had less presence than other fixtures against Rayo Vallecano, Valladolid or Elche.
But at least the scoreline made up for it, in a much needed win for the current league leaders. Following two goalless draws and a painful defeat in the Copa del Rey against their eternal rivals, many expected a potential slip-up which could bring the gap with Real Madrid down to 8 points.
Yet Barça made sure not to disappoint again despite knowing los colchoneros were on a 6-win run with an outstanding Antoine Griezmann, who in fact hit the crossbar in the very first minute of the game.
Both teams enjoyed some decent chances, yet the home side should’ve scored at least a couple more through Raphinha and Lewandowski in the second half. But what’s important is the 3 points the team bagged in the toughest fixture they had from now until the end of the season.
The clean sheet also means Marc-André Ter Stegen has equalled Claudio Bravo’s record of 23 matches without conceding a goal in a single season. Furthermore, according to Spain’s most popular statistician, MisterChip, Barça has become the first club among the 7 top European leagues (Spain, England, Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Portugal) to concede 9 goals or fewer in the first 30 matches of a season.
Xavi’s Barça may not be the most reliable at a European level, but in Spain the squad is doing one hell of a job defensively and also proving to be an extremely efficient side.