Barcelona blew Newcastle United away with a 7-2 victory in the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie, netting four goals in the second half.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair, with Newcastle going blow-for-blow with the Blaugrana. But Lamine Yamal’s penalty made it 3-2 heading into half-time.
Hansi Flick’s side put the tie to bed with four goals in 21 second-half minutes, running riot and exploiting Newcastle’s man-for-man pressing scheme.
In this article, we’ll cover
Barcelona’s man-to-man press breakers
Newcastle attempted to go man-for-man across the pitch against Barcelona, jumping their right-hand side in order to transition into their press.
Anthony Elanga would jump to pressure Gerard Martin and Kieran Trippier would jump onto Joao Cancelo. Malick Thiaw would then shuffle across to cover Raphinha in the channel.
Once Trippier (or Tino Livramento after he was subbed on at half-time) jumped to mark Cancelo, Barcelona had a 4v4 in the attacking third. Their front four were man marked by Sandro Tonali, Thiaw, Dan Burn and Lewis Hall.
This give Barcelona the chance to manipulate the man-to-man pressing scheme by dragging players into uncomfortable positions, disrupting their initial references and clearing space to exploit.
For Barcelona’s fourth goal, Robert Lewandowski moved towards the ball, dragging Burn away with him. Raphinha then drifted towards the right, taking Thiaw in the opposite direction.
Fermin Lopez was then able to spin after dropping deep with Tonali following, attacking the space between Livramento and Thiaw.
Martin was able to find the diagonal pass into Raphinha’s feet, who played it into the space for Lopez to run into, finishing neatly into the bottom right corner to make it 4-2.
Lewis Hall brilliance
Rotations and fluid counter movements are one way of beating a man to man pressing scheme. But Lewis Hall’s skillset presents another way, through his press resistance and ability to outplay against opposition pressure.
Hall broke open the Barcelona defensive scheme for Newcastle’s first goal of the night, beating Eric Garcia with a give and go, running into the left channel and delivering a ball across the box into the path of Elanga.
The 21-year-old full-back completed two of his three take-ons in the match, picking the ball up in full-back zones and collapsing Barcelona’s attempted press with his carries.
Another future tactical development could be utilising press resistant full-backs to bait pressure and break man oriented pressing schemes, as Hall demonstrated throughout this two-legged tie.
Fermin Lopez and Lamine Yamal’s rotations
Yamal and Lopez were interchanging nicely on the right-hand side. They constantly looked to create seperation from their markers and access the space around each other.
In basketball, a dribble hand-off is when a ball handler dribbles towards a teammate, typically acting as a screen. They then hand the ball off to them, while simultaneously shielding their defender.
The same can be applied to football. The dribbler goes towards the teammate, crossing each other over, causing disruption to the defenders’ making references.
An example of this dynamic was the exchange between Yamal and Lopez ahead of Barcelona’s second goal. The two had a “hand off” exchange, allowing Yamal to drive inside and win a free kick.
Lopez dropping deep in the right channel also dragged Tonali away on a number of occasions, allowing Yamal to rotate inside and drag Hall central, creating space for Raphinha and Lewandowski to peel off and attack the channel.
Ruthless finishing
Barcelona put the tie to game to bed in the second half, scoring four goals inside 21 minutes. Raphinha and Lopez both scored once, with Lewandowski netting twice.
Raphinha scored twice overall, taking five shots at Camp Nou, coming inside off the left, with all five of his efforts hitting the target.
The Brazilian was also a creative force in the game. He took 44 touches, created six chances — three of which were big chances — while providing two assists.
Lewandowski was also clinical on the night, netting twice from his four shots taken in the game, getting three shots on target.
The Barcelona front three all came away with goals against Newcastle, proving too much for Howe’s side with their fire power in that second half.