[ad_1]
Lionel Messi confessed that Gerard Pique's goal was not a masterpiece of the training ground. Barcelona beat PSV Eindhoven 2-1 on Wednesday to secure first place in their group in the Champions League for a 12th consecutive season.
Messi opened the scoring at the Philips Stadion as a result of a move that he had started midway through the 61st minute, scoring his sixth goal of the competition this season in just three appearances.
The Argentine striker then turned his role of supplier, preparing Piqué 10 minutes later, as the defender was deviating on a free kick shot inside the area.
Spade, half jokingly, said after the game that the overall game had been "repeated" and resulted from a lot of field workout training, but Messi was unable to continue.
"It's not repeated, it's a lie," Messi said. Movistar. "It was a poorly taken free kick, but fortunately Spades was there. [the ball] and he took advantage of the situation. "
Despite his victory, the Barca spent a good part of the game in the back. PSV have created more than 20 chances, beating wood three times and making several good saves against Marc-André ter Stegen.
However, the Netherlands, which was eliminated from Europe as a result of this result, was unable to take advantage of their opportunities. Luuk de Jong's head in the 83rd minute arrived too late.
"It was an open match," added Messi. "In the first half, we lost a lot of easy balls, we gave them too many counter-attacks and free kicks and they had a lot of chances, we knew we could not do it because their team was strong.
"Then, when we were two, they started putting a lot of centers in. They had a lot of big players in the box, which is hard to defend."
Barca coach Ernesto Valverde was also concerned about his team's lack of control.
"The PSV created a danger because we gave the ball," he lamented at his post-match press conference. "They created a lot of chances, De Jong is hard to defend and we suffered.
"We did not look safe at the back, they hit the woodwork, they had bends, we had problems for the first 20 minutes, we gave up more. than necessary. "
Valverde, meanwhile, was extremely satisfied with three more points, while Barca took first place in Group B with a game to spare. He will host Tottenham in his last game at Camp Nou on December 11th.
"We wanted to win the group and we managed to do it, despite the difficulty of the teams we faced," said the coach.
"You have to keep in mind that we have struggled away from home in the last two years [in Europe]. And this year, we won two and shot one that should have been won. It may seem easy, but these games have their problems, like this one. "
[ad_2]
Source link
