|
| Pique celebrates goal for Barça vs Borussia Monchengladbach |
FC Barcelona escaped a shocker at the Borussia Park on Wednesday night as they fought very hard to comeback from a goal down to beat tough German opponent Borussia Monchengladbach 2-1 in their second group C game of the UEFA Champions League.
Second half goals from substitute Arda Turan and defender Gerard Pique cancelled out Thorgan Hazard’s opener as Barça maintain their 100% win record in the 2016/2017 UEFA Champions League season.
Barcelona were without star man Lionel Messi who is out with a groin injury and coach Luis Enrique played a surprising 4-4-2 formation with Paco Alcacer and Luis Suarez forward and Neymar behind them. It didn’t quite work out as Barça struggled to get a goal although came close on numerous occasions.
Neymar got the first real chance of the game as he saw his shot saved by Yann Sommer, Luis Suarez then capitalized on a defensive mistake but couldn’t get his left footed shot on target in a position where he could’ve done better. Moments later, Neymar played a great pass to find Luis Suarez free, but the Uruguayan decided to slot a pass to Alcacer when he should have shot.
Barça were made to pay for their reckless wastage as Borussia Monchengladbach got the opener after 34 minutes. Forward Raffael made a quick break with Thorgan Hazard who talked in from a pass from Mahmoud Dahoud to give the hosts the lead.
Luis Enrique decided to make changes to his side and brought on Arda Turan for Ivan Rakitic and the decision immediately paid off as the Turk got at the end of a clever pass by Neymar to volley in the equalizer for Barça, allowing the Catalans a huge sigh of relief whilst also increasing their morale.
The goal increased Barça’s urgency in search of the winner as they sent everyone forward and finally got their goal on 74 minutes thanks to Gerard Pique. Neymar played in a great low corner kick to find Luis Suarez whose shot was too powerful for Sommer and Pique was on hand to slot in the rebound.
Barça kept on dominating from that moment and were unlucky not to get the third, however, the 2-1 win was enough to make it 6 points out of six this season as they sit comfortably top of group C, two points above Manchester City who played a thrilling 3-3 draw with Celtic.