On to the next round!

The Champions League

As part of their European competition, Barcelona faced Inter de Milan on November 06 at their stadium. The surprise was that their star player Lionel Messi was part of the group that traveled to play this game. But, since he was still injured, he didn’t play. Playing in Italy has always been a struggle for FC Barcelona because Italian teams are tough at their home with their fans chanting the whole game. They pass the ball around hiding it from the Barcelona players. The Italian style of playing has always gotten Barcelona in a struggle to beat them.

Even in this game, although the result ended in a 1-1 draw, Barcelona couldn’t keep the lead until the end the game. Barcelona had the possession of the ball throughout the whole game creating chances of goals. Suarez, Rakitic, and Coutinho had good chances of scoring in the first and second half but couldn’t capitalize the goal. It had to be a player coming out from the bench that scored the away goal for Barcelona.

Malcom came off the bench at the 81^st minute into the game. But he only needed two minutes on the pitch to score his first Champions League goal as a Barca player. In a counterattack made by Coutinho, Malcom with his fast pace in the pitch race to the box with the ball scoring the goal with his left-foot. He showed Valverde that he needs more playing time to show him his talents because he hasn’t gotten much minutes in the Spanish League competition.

Unfortunately, Inter de Milan found the equalizer in the 87^th minute into the game with a nice run from Mauro Icardi to put it through the legs of Ter Stegen. It could’ve been a perfect night for Malcom if they would’ve gotten the three points away from home with his goal. However, FC Barcelona is the FIRST team to qualify to the next round in the Champions League with two matches still to be played. With solid 10 points in group B, Barcelona earned their spot in the round of 16 of the Champions League.

Highlights of the match: