La Liga 2016-2017: Barcelona 1-2 Alaves - 5 talking Points
Deportivo Alaves caused the biggest shock of the La Liga 2016-2017 season so far with an impressive win over defending champions Barcelona, on Saturday. The newly promoted side took the lead in the 39th minute through Deyverson when he found the back of the net of an inch-perfect cross from the right-hand side of the pitch. Despite coming close on numerous occasions in the first half, Barcelona had to wait until the start of the second half to restore parity through a Jeremy Mathieu header.
However, the hosts were shocked by Ibai Gomez’s goal in the 64th minute and never recovered from it, despite the introduction of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, and Andres Iniesta.
Here are the five talking points from Alaves’ win over Barcelona.
Barcelona had all the possession, but Alaves were lethal
Barcelona expectedly dominated the proceedings at the Nou Camp. However, they were not able to take advantage of their dominance and force a victory. Despite coming close on numerous occasions the side did not test the opposition keeper and were largely contained by a deep-lying Alaves defense.
The visitors, on the other hand, were lethal in attack and grabbed the two chances that came their way. The things were expected to improve with the introduction of Messi and Suarez. However, the duo failed to cause any great concern to the Alaves defense and was rendered ineffective by the opposition.
The side that has been heralded for its attacking abilities endured a tough evening as they failed to break the Alaves defense. The game might go on to serve as a master class on how to gain a positive result despite being the underdogs against a star-studded attacking line-up with a lethal approach.