Loading ...Jul 31 2008
Fiorentina Has Two Weeks to Improve on Barcelona Defeat
It was only a friendly, but yesterday Barcelona and Fiorentina stepped up their preparations for Champions League qualifying by facing each other. Both clubs sent out strong starting lineups.
For Barcelona, Lionel Messi started (before leaving today to join Argentina), as did Andreas Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez, Carles Puyol and Daniel Alves. Bojan Krkic came on at half-time. Alexander Hleb was subbed in half-way through the second. Iniesta had to be subbed-out with an injury in the first half.
Fiorentina started both Adrian Mutu and Alberto Gilardino up front, subbing them out along with four others in the 56th minute. By that time, Barcelona had gone up 2-0.
La Viola has to be a little disappointed at not putting up a better fight. True, it was only a friendly, but it’s only two weeks until they’re playing these matches for real, and they were reported out-classed by Barça. Their defense, which lost Tomás Ujfalusi to Atlético Madrid this summer, was unable to match-up with Barcelona (though few defenses are).
Every time I see somebody predicting Fiorentina to improve on last year’s finish, I want to ask them how the club replaced Ujfalusi. In my mind, they haven’t. I’m withholding judgement on how well Juan Manuel Vargas will work.
Fiorentina is seeded for tomorrow’s Champions League draw, which means they’ll miss other seeded powers like Arsenal, Liverpool, and Barcelona, but there are dangerous teams that could get (like Atlético Madrid). They’ll need to use the next two weeks to prepare for such a match-up.
Barcelona continues looking good. They rolled out a 4-4-2 for this match, a slight diversion from their typical tactic, but still continued their string of convincing performances that started with the tour of Scotland, where they demolished Dundee United and Hibernian. This may be an instance of drawing too much from friendlies, but even though Barcelona is in the same situation as Fiorentina for tomorrows Champions League draw, they will have little to fear if they continue executing as they have.
Quotes
“We’re still not in our best physical condition but we will be ready for the preliminaries, matches which we’re really looking forward to.” - Cesare Prandelli, coach, Fiorentina
Links
Barcelona Teach Fiorentina A Lesson
Prandelli: We’ll be ready
Prandelli pained by defeat
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