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Barcelona Held Amid Controversy

Saturday, 12 April 2008

The fat lady will be busy warming her vocal cords after Barcelona twice gave up the lead to draw 2-2 with Recreativo on Saturday night, dropping another two points in their pursuit of league leaders Real Madrid.

Milito-Edmilson Barça took the lead inside the opening couple of minutes through Samuel Eto'o, but Marco Ruben restored parity just before the break when his header was controversially adjudged to have crossed the line.

Eto'o restored the away side's lead inside the first minute of the second half, but Ruben was again on hand to bring the scores level with twenty minutes remaining, and that was the end of the scoring as both teams had to content themselves with a share of the spoils.

The game had barely got underway when Barcelona took the lead: Giovani Dos Santos crossing from the right and Eto'o meeting his centre with a perfectly placed header past Stefano Sorrentino.

Recre seemed unfazed by conceding so early, and should have equalised after five minutes when Florent Sinama-Pongolle failed to get a full connection on Aitor Tornavaca's low cross with the goal gaping in front of him.

The action was swinging from end-to-end and it was Barça who had the next chance when Xavi's pass across the face of goal was well cut-out with players waiting to tap the ball home after a great run from Eidur Gudjohnsen.

Marco Ruben fired over from inside the area for the home team just moments later, but the chances then dried up for both teams, as the match became disjointed, with possession swapped on a regular basis and a number of petty fouls committed in midfield, mainly by Recre.

Neither goal was threatened again until five minutes before the break when Sinama-Pongolle latched onto an excellent through ball from Jesus Vazquez Munoz, but saw his shot smothered by a combination of Victor Valdes and his defenders.

Just moments later, Recre did get the equaliser: Ruben heading Sinama-Pongolle's cross towards goal and the referee's assistant ruling that Valdes' save had taken place behind the line, in what looked like a very dubious decision.

Barça rightly felt hard done by, but they almost restored their lead in first half stoppage time when Sorrentino did well to keep out Giovani from close-range after Eto'o had put the young Mexican through on goal.

Just as he had done in the first, Eto'o started the second half with a bang, controlling the ball on his chest, setting himself and firing an unstoppable shot past Sorrentino from the edge of the area to put the away side back in front inside the opening minute.

Recre were not ready to give up the fight and Barcelona had Valdes to thank for keeping them in front when he did well to spread himself to block Sinama-Pongolle's close-range shot after Ruben had cleverly headed his striker partner in on goal.

The away side enjoyed a good spell once Lionel Messi was introduced to the field, but Recre were not finished, and levelled the scores once again when Camunas cut in from the left and delivered a deep cross to the far post that Ruben headed back across goal into the opposite corner.

Messi very nearly made the difference for Barça, but saw his intentions well read by Recreativo keeper Sorrentino as he attempted to square the ball for Eto'o and that was as close as either side got to goal in the closing minutes, save a long-range effort from Gianluca Zambrotta, as the game ended level.

Nick Dorrington, Goal.com