Full time Villarreal vs Barcelona 3 - 4
I admit that Barcelona's defense in this match was really unsatisfactory, but the performance of their attackers and midfielders was good enough that it helped them win the match. Gavi, De Jong, Ferran and Lewandowski scored one goal each, but of course I didn't really expect Barcelona to concede 3 goals. Xavi needs to make strategic changes in the next match so that his team can play better in defense. Lamine Yamal, who appeared slick, managed to become MVP in this match, of course he became a new gem in the Barcelona squad.
In the end these are the 3 points that really made Barcelona work hard. But overall I think Barcelona did pretty well in the build up despite some of their finishing not being great.
Barcelona must work hard to beat Villarreal, Xavi has an important task to improve the porous back line. conceding three goals is not a small amount for Barcelona, I think this is a task to fix in their next match. Villarreal appeared very insistent even though they were two goals down, they appeared extraordinary in front of their own supporters.
In this match, Xavi did not accompany his squad directly on the sidelines, due to the red card he received in the previous match against Getafe. He was seen watching the game from the stands.
Yes Xavi needs to work on the defense because it isn't tight enough. Imagine that Villarreal scored all three goals straight without Barca scoring in between. This shows that work needs to be done on the defense for improvement. The substitute Ferran Torres made the difference after he came into the game from the bench to put a smile on Barca fans and players faces again. One thing that I love with today's match is that whenever Barca scores it is always double in between three minutes. It was a tough match with much goals.