Spanish league soccer team Barcelona scored a 1-0 away win against Santander Racing on Sunday, keeping Barcelona's hopes alive in Spain's league competition, where it trails leader Real Madrid by 10 points.
Despite the result, critics said Barcelona's new tactics, created by manager Frank Rijkaard, made the team look slow, lazy, and loose. Barca did little more than defending during the first half.
The defensive strategy did owe a lot to Racing's decision to attack, pressing as far forward as it could from the start of the game.
Racing's manager, Marcelino, in contrast to Rijkaard, played far from safe, filling his starting line-up with players who usually begin as reserves.
The unusual line-up meant that Racing lacked its usual punch and creativity, but the team remained as hardworking as ever.
After 20 minutes of nothing but defense, Barcelona began shrugging off some of its lethargy, with Inestia and Giovanni teaming up to steal the ball and send it up to forward Henry, who was trying to break through a cloud of Racing defenders. But it was not until the minute 31 that a Bojan header from a Sylvinho free kick that gave Henry his goal.
Barca's game came alive in the last 25 minutes after Argentina's Lionel Messi came on to replace Giovanni. Messi, who has not played for a month due to injury, went into the offensive and tried to bring the rest of the team with him. Source: Xinhua
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