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Match

Marcador del partit

Date: Saturday, 06 Dec
Competition: ???label.competicio0???
Stadium: Camp Nou, Barcelona

Resultat:

FC Barcelona: 4
Valencia CF: 0

Match report

Match Report
Pre-Match

Match Report

More info

Goals

1-0, Henry (min 20)
2-0, Henry (min 28)
3-0, Alves (min 46)
4-0, Henry (min 79)

Henry majestic in Barça goal-fest (4-0)

Jordi Clos

A hat-trick for Henry, and one more for Alves, were a fair return for Barça in a game in which they totally dominated the side placed third in the table. Yet another impressive victory further consolidates Barça’s widening lead in the league champion

It was yet another magnificent night of football at the Camp Nou, and that against what was in theory one of the hardest rivals they will have to face this season. One of the finest Valencia teams of recent years, and which before their trip to the Catalan capital had only conceded three goals on the road. But Barça are top of the table, and showed why by tearing their visitors apart with a simply spectacular first half display, in which Henry more than made up for the absence of Samuel Eto’o. The French striker, making some dazzling runs in from the wing, scored an impressive hat trick in front of 83,000 adoring fans, and with an Alves goal to add to the spoils, it all amounted to an absolute festival of brilliant football at the Camp Nou.

The leaders impose their superiority

Barça marked out their ground from the start. After just a minute and a half, Xavi intercepted a sloppy pass between the two Valencian centre backs, and in a one-on-one with the keeper sent the ball onto the post. That early warning was followed almost immediately after by two long range strikes from Thierry Henry. But it was just when Valencia finally looked to have managed to get some kind of grip on the game that we saw Henry score the first of his three goals.

Hooray Henry

It happened in the 20th minute. The Frenchman broke free from the defence and coolly placed the ball beyond Renan with a delightful chip. Then following a headed half-chance for David Villa, Barça knocked the wind out of their visitors with their second. It all started with a counter attack created by Alves, which was followed on by Hleb, and who then provided a first class assist for Henry to stoke home his second of the night (min 28).

Messi gets involved

He may not have scored, but Messi also created no end of headaches for the hapless Valencia. Mixing attacking duties with a wider role, the Argentinian gave Basque full back Del Horno plenty to think about, and it was Messi who almost always had the upper hand. In his finest move of the night, in the 36th minute, he ran rings around the Valencia defence, but this time Renan was able to prevent any further score – and although Barça continued with their full-out attacking game, the 2-0 scoreline remained unchanged up until the half-time whistle.

Relentless pressure

The Camp Nou crowd had barely had time to take their seats after the break before they were back on their feet to celebrate Barça’s third. This time it was Alves who scored, though it was as much Xavi’s goal as his own following an absolute peach of a through ball to the Brazilian. Having already scored one, Alves almost made it two just moments later, but his free kick sailed only narrowly over the bar. It was almost all one-way traffic, although the classy David Villa did manage to work his way into a goalscoring position in the 48th minute, but Victor Valdés made sure of maintaining his clean sheet.

Valencia go in strong

With the score at 3-0, Barça eased off somewhat, although they did enjoy chances that fell to Hleb (62nd minute) and Messi (67th minute), both of which were one-on-ones with Renan, with the Valencia stopper coming out on top. Barça were simply too good for Valencia, who started resorting to ugly tactics in order to avoid any further embarrassment. Del Horno was the main culprit, who was shown one yellow card, although following fouls on Alves and Bojan, the Camp Nou made it clear that they felt he should not have been allowed to stay on the pitch.

Henry makes it four

With a heated atmosphere in the ground, Bojan produced an excellent run down the right and sent a killer pass straight through to Henry, who was thus able to complete his hat trick. That was in the 79th minute, and with the job more than done, it was time for the celebrations to begin. Barça’s majestic form continues, and with a solid lead in La Liga, there couldn’t possibly be a better time to take on Real Madrid. To add to the good news, second placed Vila-real were held at home by Getafe, meaning that ahead of Sunday’s matches, Barça currently stand six points clear.

Preview

New shirt

The Barça players will wear the new t-shirt that promotes the MÉS project , a solidarity campaign to help educate vulnerable youngsters and refugees around the world, this Saturday.

Another grand encounter

Roger Bogunyà

Barça meet Valencia on Saturday evening at Camp Nou as the games between the teams at the top of the table continue (22:00 CET, R@dio Barça) and a home win would see the hosts move eight points clear of their visitors.

September, October and November were excellent months for the Blaugrana as Pep Guardiola’s team did not taste defeat once and that has meant that they can go into the last month of the calendar year on top of the table with a lead over their nearest challengers. Valencia are among that chasing pack and they are currently five points behind and will be hoping to reduce that by causing a surprise and taking the points.

Differing tactics

It promises to be a spectacular encounter. The first in the table against the third placed team with the two sides employing opposing tactics as Barça like to press forward while Valencia are more comfortable waiting for the counter-attack. Both teams will be looking for the win and will play at pace from the start. Barça though will be without the league’s top scorer in Samuel Eto’o after he received his fifth yellow card of the season against Sevilla.

Guardiola , who will not name his 18-man squad until the day of the game, has Éric Abidal back in contention after he was given the green light to play again after more than a month on the sidelines. The visitors have some key players out with David Silva still recovering from a long-term knock while Alexis and Edu picked up injuries in the past week. Carlos Marchena is out after being sent off last Sunday against Real Betis. The absentees have meant that coach Unai Emery has called upon youngster Jaume and Michel to pad out his squad.

Averaging out

Eto’o may not be playing, but the fixture still promises goals with an average of over three-per-match in the 73 meetings in Camp Nou between the two teams. David Villa has 12 goals to his names this term while Lionel Messi has nine, Juanma Mata six and Thierry Henry four.

Goals without Eto’o

The Blaugrana supporters will also be optimistic that their team will triumph even though Eto’o is not playing because the team won 0-5 against Basel and 2-5 versus Sporting Clube when he was also unavailable. After playing Sevilla last weekend, the visit of Valencia is the second of the four games against the top five teams that Barça will play and next week Real Madrid visit Camp Nou before the Blaugrana head to Villarreal.

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