No defeats digested in the last three games and Ronald Koeman’s Barcelona were in that killer mood to win matches by dominating, but you just never know when the shock is waiting to make all those irrelevant. The giant killer of this season in La Liga, Cadiz, stunned Lionel Messi and Ronald Koeman last night and for which, the Catalans currently have just 14 points after 10 games of the new league campaign with the club last accruing less than that at this stage 32 years ago, when they picked up 13.
Barcelona started with their possession-based football and progressed towards the opposition half, but surprisingly, they lacked sharpness.
Their build-up consistently suffered due to many misplaced passes, good runs being ignored and very few shots set the tone for what was a struggle against a parked bus that looked very organized from Cadiz.
The home team got a goal early on, and it was a weird one as Oscar Mingueza headed the ball against his own net, and despite a great save by Marc-Andre ter Stegen the damage was done - Alvaro Gimenez scored the easiest goal of his life to give Cadiz the lead.
Cadiz sat deep and Barça simply could not find a way to break the resistance.
The attacking players were trying to move around the final third and link up to find spaces, but there just was none and when something was about to happen, poor passing dented that.
Ronald Koeman made two substitutions to bring on dynamism in the side, and the visitors looked well-poised and the equalizer came courtesy of an own-goal Alcala after a well created attacking move and looked set to continue going forward and find the winner.
Clement Lenglet, then, failed to control a throw-in by Jordi Alba, which gave the substitute Alvaro Negredo a chance to score with his first touch after taking the ball away from ter Stegen and scoring on an open net.
The backline of Barcelona was clumsy and failed to give the midfield and frontline enough confidence, still, the frontline, led by Messi, progressed to breakthrough.
Again, the build-ups were victimized by a lack of coordination.
Goalkeeper Ledesma made a few saves, but they were quite comfortable, and the best chance for Barca was a shot by Sergino Dest that went just wide when the American was offside.
In the last ten minutes, Barca threw more bodies upfront with just two defenders on the pitch and that’s when Ledesma really shined with two giant saves on shots by Miralem Pjanic and Antoine Griezmann.
Cadiz stunned the Catalans!
“We can't concede a second goal like that. It's a lack of concentration. It's hard to explain what happened because we had a good week,” Koeman said post-match.
“I think the first-half wasn't good. We lost a lot of balls. There was little improvement in the second half.”
“It's a giant step backward to be able to compete for La Liga. I'm very disappointed. They [Atletico Madrid] are many points away. If we do not improve the attitude away from home, there is nothing else to say.”
Sergio Busquets said, “This year we had individual mistakes that have cost us a lot of points. Today it happened to us again.”
“Recent games have greatly penalized individual errors. It is not an attitude problem. In the Champions League, the team looks like another one. I can't tell you why, if I knew, we'd try to correct it.”
Frank Rijkaard was coach when Barca last endured such a miserable stretch on the road, then going six without a win, and they must improve in the coming weeks to avoid seeing that run extended further, their 21attempts here evidence more of territorial dominance than final-third creativity.
But, credit must be given to Cadiz for their determination against such a big side.
Ledesma made eight saves, Fali seven clearances, Yann Bodiger six interceptions, Isaac Carcelen five blocks, and Alfonso Espino five tackles – all of which were game highs. Alberto Perea, who matched Espino's tally, also completed five of his six dribbles to relieve pressure, while Gimenez scored with his only shot and Negredo had an instant impact.
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