FABREGAS SLAMS ‘BORING’ LEVERKUSEN
Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas has said that Barcelona were extremely boring in the recent Champions League encounter with Bayern Leverkusen.
Barcelona were drawn against Bayern Leverkusen in the last 16 of the Champions League. The Catalan club had the away leg as the first match. After failing to create a major opening in the first 40 minutes, Barcelona finally took the lead in the 42nd minute. After taking the lead, it was an easy passage for Barcelona to a convincing 3-1 win over their German opponents. This victory was extremely crucial for Barcelona, as they were coming on the back of a poor away from prior to the match.
Bayern Leverkusen defended extremely well in the match against Barcelona. Even after conceding the first goal, they were extremely brilliant in the defence. As a result, Barcelona were unable to play their open and expensive style of football.
It is very much expected that Barcelona would complete the job at the Camp Nou following the 3-1 result. However, Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas has said that Barcelona were extremely boring in the match due to the negative tactics employed by Bayern Leverkusen and also due to the tactics used by manager Guardiola in order to win the game.
“Perhaps this kind of play is a bit boring but that’s the kind of play we needed to employ. There were reasons we played like we did in the first half: they are a very physical team. They can complicate the whole game with one counterattack but we dominated the situation. We’re very pleased,” Fabregas said on the official website of Barcelona.
Barcelona will be hoping for an easy draw in the quarter-final stage of the Champions League given that the progress into the next round has become all but guaranteed.
With so many Germans playing for Leverkusen, and so many Spanish internationals playing for Barca, the game could be seen as a re-run of the World Cup Semi-Finals. Should the two teams meet again this summer, the pretournament Euro 2012 betting suggests another Spanish victory is imminent.