Barcelona 1-0 APOEL: Just enough to wrap up the 3 points

Posted by: neydmin Posted date: September 18, 2014 In: Neymar news | comment : 0

Full-time: Barcelona 1-0 APOEL
Goals: Gerard Piqué (28′)
Match date: September 17, 2014
Stadium: Camp Nou
Competition: UEFA Champions League
Barcelona line-up: Ter Stegen, Daniel Alves, Piqué, Bartra, Adriano, Samper, Xavi, Sergi Roberto, Munir, Messi, Neymar.

It might not have been the most stellar debut Barcelona fans could have wished for this season’s opening round of the UEFA Champions League, but it sure was effective. The Blaugranas got past APOEL with a 1-0 win and the only goal in the game came from a Gerard Piqué header still inside the first 30 minutes.

Neymar played the whole match for the first time in a long time, but that didn’t exactly mean that Luis Enrique didn’t rotate some of his key players. The likes of Iniesta and Rakitic started this match on the bench, after both having featured in Barça‘s lineup in this past weekend’s encounter for La Liga, against Athletic Bilbao. Iniesta would still be given a few playing minutes in the second half, but Rakitic for example, was not even used in tonight’s game.

Nevertheless, it was still a quite strong team that Barça lined up with this Wednesday night against APOEL, with the attacking front being formed by Munir, Lionel Messi and Neymar. It wouldn’t be any of them breaking the visitors’ resistance though, since it had to be Gerard Piqué scoring the winning goal of this game.

We were about to cross the first half of an hour in Camp Nou, when a free-kick taken by Lionel Messi allowed for Gerard Piqué to rise above all opposition around him and head the ball into the near post. APOEL‘s goalkeeper stayed still and the ball ended up going in, for the home fans’ delight…

Barça slowed down their intensity levels and basically played with the clocks for the rest of the game in order to assure they wouldn’t tire too much. Next Sunday, there’s a Levante vs Barcelona for La Liga taking place in Valencia, and Luis Enrique certainly has high hopes of extending his league winning streak to 4 games in a row.

Sources: fcbarcelona.com / ronaldo7.net / theguardian.com