Barcelona's wrong step can restart the title fight in Spain. In the last round Barcelona managed to beat the record of consecutive wins in Primera Division, raising the bar to 16 successes. Now , the team coached by Josep Guardiola should take over again, managing only a draw on the land of Sporting Gijon.
The hosts opened the score in the 16th minute through David Barral, but David Villa managed to rescue a point for Barcelona with only ten minutes before the final.
Sport.es put most of the blame for the draw with Gijon on the FIFA "virus", a term used to explain the weeks of international matches, where players are forced to submit to their selected teams. Barcelona is one of the clubs in the world which gives the most international players for the world football's super powers.
Things change radically when the Catalan team sends players in national teams. According to the source cited above, in times of international matches, "the aliens" bring only 49.1% of points at stake. Put in another form, Barcelona loses 33.1% of points compared to a normal day.
Manuel Preciado, the coach who promoted the Asturias in Secunda Division, was going to declare after the match that" in order to play in such a manner against the best team in the world, we would have deserved more than a single point."
Discussing with the press after the game, Pep Guardiola had only words of praise for the small team from Asturias: "On their own land, Sporting Gijon is a redoubtable team, and this was seen. I have a lot of respect for them."
As for the game pressed by the Catalans, Guardiola has defended the decision to keep on the bench Sergio Busquets and Pedro, having in mind the Champions League match against Arsenal in the middle of next week.
Real Madrid may take advantage of Barcelona;s equal, if they stand up tonight in the field of Espanyol . The premises are better for the band prepared by "The Special One" who defeated the Catalans in the round match with 3-0. If they repeat the performance tonight, they are only five points away from Barcelona and the fight for the first place is relaunched.
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