20:45 on Sunday, 08/10/17, saw Barcelona face an upbeat Villarreal at the Estadio de la Ceramica. Barcelona were on a 24-game unbeaten streak against the Yellow submarines and fielded the expected starting 11. Fran Escriba of Villarreal also laid out his preferred starting 11 in a 4-4-2 with the resurgent Alexandre Pato partnering Nicola Sansone in attack.
The tactical layout of both teams was also easily anticaipated, Barcelona are never going to change from the Holy Grail of the 4-3-3 and Villareal looked to neutralise Barcelona's bite by holding two compact lines of four players behind their two forwards. Villareal's back line played extremely flat throughout the game probably fearing Barcelona's quick transition and counter-attacks. They also set up themselves to counter-attack with pace offering one or two runners from the first line of four during their counter-attacks. Well drilled by their coach, Villareal's tight defense gave Barcelona little joy. Not that Barcelona didn't creat chances but they were always second to the ball. This was expected as the Villareal players overpopulated the box, it had to take a very sleepy set of defenders to allow Barcelona get to the final ball. Villareal themselves carved out decent chances but Pique, Mascherano and Busquets seemed up to the task.
In the first half, Barcelona were on the front foot, Messi and Iniesta were especially busy. Luis Enrique's team would probably have created more chances if their summer signing Andre Gomes was more tactically flexible and didn't just sit. Messi as part of an attacking three doesn't feature in Barcelona's game until the final phase of attack, Messi always starts out as the widest man in Barcelona's in-game midfield four. This means many of the times Andre Gomes and Messi occupied the same space, a tactically better player such as Arda Turan or Ivan Rakitic would have understood this as a chance to creat better vertical penetration or horizontal width. When Messi occupied Gomes' halfspace, Gomes refused to make runs into the Villareal defense or fan out wide to occupy another Villareal defender. If he had done that he would have given Messi another passing option instead of forcing him to always pass out left or try to dribble his way into the Villareal box. The latter effect had been prepared for by the team in Yellow, double and triple teaming Messi when he was on the ball, they succeeded in regaining possession a lot of times. Neymar also had a decent game, creating the highest number of chances by any player in the game. He constantly provided balls into the box but Villareal's numerical advantage always ensured they came to fruition.
The second half started with Barcelona still on the front foot until a poor pass by Lucas Digne which led to a Villareal counter-attack. Pique refused to commit himself in marking Pato giving the Brazilian time and space to lay out an inch perfect pass to Sansone, who picked his spot and put the ball there despite a quickly receding shot angle. Immediately after the goal, Villareal started a high press preferring to force Barcelona into errors early in their build up. It turned out to be a bad idea as Barcelona easily passed around the press to fuel quick paced attacks, creating 1v1 situations as most Villareal players were still up the pitch. This made Villareal return back to type, sitting back with tight banks of four. Luis Enrique was sentient enough to notice what Gomes' lack of movement was causing as Gomes moved better and was a far better threat in the second half. With greater attacking verve, good substitutions and a slight tweak in formation to a 3-4-3, Barcelona created better chances in the second half even forcing Villareal player, Bruno into a blatant handball in his box which the referee missed. In the same vein, referee Ignacio Iglesias also missed Mascherano's outstretched hand which blocked Soriano's shot. Barcelona almost broke the deadlock with Messi hitting the woodwork in the 73rd minute. Barcelona didn't deserve to lose and they didn't as Messi buried his 90th minute free kick in the far right corner of the post after being awarded the kick from a foul by the second half substitute, Sami Castillejo.
Villareal would have ended the game the more satisfied team with their defensive performance almost earning them the win but Messi's brilliance extended Barcelona's unbeaten streak against Villareal to 25 matches.
