With the first Champion's League game looming just a few days away, FC Barcelona faced off against newly ascended Hercules.
Barca's coach Josep Guardiola seemed to think that his squad would roll over Hercules much as they did to Racing Santander in their first match. The weekday match against Panathinaikos was clearly more important. To that end, Guardiola fielded a line up without key midfielders Xavi Hernandez and Sergio Busquets - replaced by Seydou Keita and Javier Mascherano. Also missing was right back Dani Alves, with Adriano taking his place in the line up. The injured Carles Puyol was replaced by Eric Abidal in the center of the defense.
The interesting line up didn't seem to cause any issues at the start. Barcelona began as they do so often with overwhelming ball control. But as time went on, Barca was unable to create significant scoring chances. Shockingly, in the 26th minute, it was Hercules that scored first.
Royston Drenthe took a failed Barca corner and raced upfield, only to draw a foul after contact with Mascherano 40 yards from goal. The following free kick led to an ugly scrum in the box where Victor Valdes blocked the first shot but couldn't stop Nelson Valdez's rebound from trickling in.
Barcelona regained possession and looked to be ready to make up the deficit. At least until a sloppy pass from right back Adriano almost gifted Hercules a goal in minute 45 of the first half. But Barcelona had a shocking lead in possession, they'd come back to win, right?
Guardiola corrected his line-up error in the second half, putting in Alves for Adriano, Xavi for Mascherano, and Pedro for Bojan. The changes made, the Blaugrana immediately went onto autopilot, taking possession and pushing towards the opposing goal as customary.
Their efforts were for naught. A Hercules counterattack led to a perfect opportunity for Valdez, who netted the second. This was no sloppy effort, but rather a perfectly executed counter with the finishing punch from the bull-like Paraguayan.
The second goal seemed to knock the wind out of the azulgrana. They pushed possession up to nearly 80% but couldn't make the chances that Hercules was seeming to create every two minutes.
In fact, Hercules almost netted the third on several occassions. Victor Valdes had at least 2 impressive double saves in the last 10 minutes, many more saves over the course of the game. This could have easily been 5 or 6 -0 in favor of Hercules.
Normally, when Barcelona lose, the other team gets a significant dose of luck. Today, the little team from Alicante played like the legendary strongman whose name they bear. Hercules outplayed Barcelona and earned an impressive victory. I doubt Guardiola will overlook them again.
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