7/19/2020

BARCELONA ERRORS BRAINSTORM : FOOTBALL


Barcelona reflects on errors as the title slips away. Striker Suarez believes the team has no one to blame but themselves.

Barring a miracle, Barcelona's recent grip on the La Liga title is coming to an end and there is a deep sense of frustration within the club and among fans to how this season has gone, with an overriding sense that they have thrown it away.

Barca were in a pole position for a third consecutive title when the campaign re-started in June but have drawn three of their nine games while Real  have been on a relentless run of victories and need two points from two games to lift the trophy.

''If we have lost the league it's because we let it slip away,'' Barca striker Luis Suarez told newspaper Sport.

''You can look for excuses and point to what happened in other games [involving Real] but we have to be aware that we let it escape due to our own errors.''

Barca first dropped points after the re-start by drawing 0-0 at Sevilla while the campaign truly unravelled in a 2-2 draw with relegation fighting CeltaVigo. They also drew 2-2 with Atletico Madrid next.

We lost a huge opportunity as if we'd have beaten Celta things would have gone better against Atletico. The real blow was in Vigo, that last minute goal by [Iago] Aspas. That hurt a lot,'' Suarez added.

Chaotic campaign
A chaotic campaign began with defeat by Athletic Bilbao and has witnessed a managerial change and a scandal affecting the club's president and hierarchy.

It is likely to end with no domestic silverware for the first time since the 2007-8 season.

Lionel Messi meanwhile, has looked increasingly frustrated, lashing out at sporting director Eric Abidal in January and the board in March over the handling of a pay-cut.

With the benefit of hindsight, sacking Ernesto Valverde in January when the team were top of the table looks like a big mistake.

Barca may not have been playing thrill-a-minute football under Valverde but he had led them to the last two titles by a landslide and was popular among the leading players.

Successor Quique Setien was not the club's first choice and although the 61-year-old's commitment to attacking football sounded appealing to purists, the transition has not gone well. [Reuters]

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