Two different worlds faced off on a meet that gathered different goals but the same urgency, s there is barely any margin error: Barça could not fail to get the win if they wanted to stay top of the table for at least one more match week. Leganés are running out of time to escape relegation. In this new league, everyone needs to add points desperately.
Leganés came into the macth the right way, really making it uncomfortable for Barça, as they closed up all the spaces very efficiently. Coach Aguirre´s approach was about a very compacted team , helping each other out constantly in defense in order to stop Barça from progressing on their half, and it worked for the most part of the first half. Actually, Leganés were the ones to have the two most clear chances: the first one through a long ball by left back Jonathan Silva that overcame the whole Barcelona defense, connected with Eraso, who passed it to Mesa, and he assisted Guerrero through a header. The striker finished it, but defender Lenglet saved it from the line. Later on forward Guerrero had another shot that passed right by Ter Stegen´s goal.
Nothing new, decent performances by the technically small team, but their waste of opportunities forward punish them all the time. Leganés forgave Barça, and they did not when they had the chance. Setién´s team were failing to move the ball fast in order to overcome Leganés wall. Messi detected his team problem and he went down to the midfield to direct the plays. His team ended up putting themselves ahead on the scoreboard before the break thanks to a shot by Ansu Fati right outside the box that put the 1-0.
Barcelona took over the ball the entire second half due to Leganés player’s tiredness, but they did not really display their best offensive performance. Setién put Suárez on the pitch in order to hold defemders amd create some space for Messi y Griezmann. The French was missingonce again as he barely touched the ball, and he got his goal disallowed due to a previous offside.
A few minutes later, Messi took the ball and dribbled half of the opponent´s team. He ended alling inside the box and the referee called the penalty, but it did not seem that any defender touched Messi on the replay. Messi scored it to put the final 2-0.
