Villa sees off Sporting (1-0)

Jordi Clos

Barça went for efficiency over spectacle tonight and beat Sporting 1-0 thanks to a second half David Villa strike. This was a Barça who showed a lot of strength at the back, but were definitely less inspired than usual up front.

Barça got through their first game without the injured Leo Messi with a narrow win over a dangerous looking Sporting. After a promising start in which the new look diamond midfield were well on top, Sporting managed to neutralise Barça’s game and it took an improved second half performance and Villa’s goal to ensure the points.

Iniesta in Messi role

Guardiola started with a 4-4-2 formation with Busquets as the defensive point of a midfield diamond, which had Keita and Xavi in the middle and Iniesta as the most advanced member. Iniesta was charged with helping the fans forget Messi’s absence and he nearly made a great impact on 9 minutes with a similar chance to his World Cup winning strike, but this time the keeper, Cuellar, was sharper than Holland’s Stekelenburg and managed to turn it round for a corner.

Change in formation

Although the diamond midfield seemed to work early on, as Barça dominated, Sporting gradually began to get a grip on the game and cut their hosts’ attacking options which were lacking width somewhat throughout. Villa got through the defence and shot wide just past the half hour, but Guardiola could see his formation wasn’t firing on all cylinders and soon decided to switch to a more familiar 4-3-3 set up, which helped to sharpen the game up.

Villa on hand

Piqué and Pedro brought more movement to the team after the break and Alves put Villa through to break the Sporting off side trap on 49 minutes for the Spanish striker to pounce and open the scoring. Now the Barça team was beginning to click and the fans’ nerves began to settle. Sporting were forced to push forward and Barça began to find more space as Preciado, who threw on a number of his first choice players who’d been left on the bench, urged his team to attack.

Strong defence

It was time to close the game down and Barça showed that they could also defend when necessary and the efficiency of the defence that Sporting failed to get a single shot on target during the 90 minutes. Villa had struck and for tonight at least, that was enough.