Through JdP's eyes
[Barça-A.Bilbao]

The match started pretty balanced, with an early save from Mats but also an early shot by Suarez. It first looked as if both sides have a few opportunities, without seeing who's clear ahead.

Thus, we did fairly well in the first 30' to the common scheme of pressing hard. Afterwards, the tired legs of an XI that had an average of 27> couldn't press anymore and relaxed.

An important improvement we have seen was in Griezmann. Usually in a third world country, the French forward involved himself between the lines as he seemed for 1-2combos and created a few potential chances, and switched to the right compensating Leo's left spaces.

However, the last 15' weren't all that great, as we were too predictable and no real through balls came in-without width, a creative midfield has to compensate, yet Arthur didn't take risks and Vidal seemed very tried, and thus, Leo was once again the only creator.

Things only stated to change in the second half, when Puig came in for Arthur, Fati for Griez and later Rakitić for Busquets. Puig EXPLODED the open spaces as if these minefields. He was the one to do incisive passes, run through the midfield as he'd be a starter

This was aided by a more offensive Rakitić, who acted a pivot-and who'd later be assisted by Leo to score his 50th goal in La Liga, 25 for us, 25 for Sevilla. Rakitić had been more offensive and his positional understanding was the reason why he could score this banger.

Fati was the other man of the night who made sure to make his name known once again,forcing his usual 1v1. There seemed to be great motivation from both youngsters saying: “We deserve to start”. Suarez, just like Vidal, were the big flops of the night.

The two seemed extremely tired and very sloppy, clearly asking to be rested. Suarez missed must win chances, Vidal didn't have the usual Energy-It's a mistery to me why they weren't subbed off, to my surprise.

Leo, on his side, created mostly bit did have two shots that could have been his 700th goal, but this will be for another day.

The last important highlight was our CB duo, with Piqué & Lenglet covering open spaces, but also not afraid to go forward, especially Piqué. Lenglet often covered the spaces left open by Alba and there was little you could critique them for.

As a whole, we confirmed La Masia is the present and not only the future, a game that gave us more confidence and that Suarez can't play 90'. Impossible.