A close encounter sees FC Barcelona leave the Nuevo Mirandilla as deserving victors. With a final scoreline of 0-1 to Barça, Cadiz are left distraught despite their best efforts. Ultimately, this complicates Cadiz’s relegation battle a bit more, and provides some level of comfort to Barcelona in their La Liga title challenge.
A phenomenal goal and some quick-thinking from Joao Felix is mainly to thank for this victory. His bicycle kick was well-timed and well-placed, ultimately giving all three points to Barcelona. Apart from that, the Blaugrana defense did their job well enough to ensure that Cadiz were not granted even a single goal.
Here is how the Barcelona players fared in this game.
Player Ratings:
Marc-Andre Ter Stegen: 7.0
Did not let the Barcelona goal feel like it was in danger throughout the game. The German goalkeeper continues to be the number one for Xavi’s Barcelona, and his quality remains as excellent as ever even when it comes to distribution.
Marcos Alonso: 6.5
The veteran, formerly from Chelsea, managed to do his job defensively. However, whenever he went on to attack during the game, his lack of pace or dynamism clearly let down the entirety of the offensive transition.
Pau Cubarsi: 8.0
As he often has been in recent outings, Pau Cubarsi was the initiator of a lot of promising Barcelona attacks. His passing was as lethal and incisive as ever, and even his defending was an absolute wall for Cadiz to get past.
Andreas Christensen: 7.5
Andreas Christensen out of this game without a booking was a massive positive for Barcelona. Any bookings would have seen him miss the upcoming clash against Real Madrid, but he ultimately helped Barcelona get the job done and managed to evade seeing any cards as well.
Hector Fort: 7.0
Given the ‘Jules Kounde’ role against Cadiz, Hector Fort was mainly limited to his defensive contributions. While he did have one or two runs at the attack, he was even motioned by Oscar Hernandez on certain occasions to stay behind and help out the team’s defenders.
Oriol Romeu: 5.0
Arguably the weakest link in a team full of rotations, Oriol Romeu’s control and lackluster retention of the ball gave Cadiz some of their best chances. In case there was any hope in anyone’s mind about seeing Romeu potentially start against Paris Saint-Germain in the next outing, this game should disqualify all of it.
Sergi Roberto: 7.0
The veteran Barcelona captain played the entirety of the game this time around, and he helped out quite a lot from the midfield. His positioning, timing, touches, and redistribution were all on point against Cadiz, something that helped Barcelona a lot in possession.
Fermin Lopez: 7.5
The most dynamic option on the field from the midfield, Fermin Lopez had quite the outing. His dribbling, awareness, and activeness were at his best today, and that helped Barcelona overrule and overrun the Cadiz midfield on a lot of separate occasions today.
Joao Felix: 8.5
One of the factors that make Joao Felix such a big ‘X-factor’ for Barcelona is his ability to pop up in moments. Even in moments when the entire team feels to be devoid of any ideas, it is Felix’s nature to conjure something magical out of nothing.
This time around, it was a smart bicycle kick that gave Barcelona the first goal of the game to break the deadlock, as well as other moments of creative genius.
Vitor Roque: 6.0
Unable to have the influence that he ideally would have wanted in this game, Vitor Roque ultimately had a less-than-ideal night. His pressing was good, and so was his positioning, but he could not get the chances that he would have wanted to be able to convert them.
Ferran Torres: 6.5
The ‘shark’ was one of the more promising forwards for Barcelona against Cadiz. Despite being unable to get on to the scoresheet, the Spaniard was relentless when it came to keeping Cadiz under pressure and often found himself in promising positions to hurl some strikes towards Ledesma.
Substitutes:
Pedri: 7.5
Brought on after the 60th-minute mark, the Barcelona magician was at his very best. Despite just being a cameo, the Canary Islander gave Barcelona some really positive moments that helped them gain not just some key moments in attack, but also retain the ball much better.
Lamine Yamal: 7.0
A much more dynamic entry into the game, Lamine Yamal played his role exceptionally well. Through his bursts of acceleration and dribbling, he made Cadiz open up a lot of space that Barcelona was ultimately unable to exploit.
Jules Kounde: 6.5
A strong display from the Frenchman ever since he came on, he marshaled the Cadiz attacks expertly well to keep a clean sheet.
Raphinha: N/A
Not enough time or influence on the game to warrant a rating.
Marc Casado: N/A
Not enough time or influence on the game to warrant a rating.
