Camacho leaves Nou Camp dumbstruck with late goal

Barca had this Copa del Rey draw sewn up at the Nou Camp until Camacho’s goal in the last minutes of play made it 2-2 . That means Barca have it all to do at the Rosaleda stadium for the second leg of the draw.
Barca failed to beat Malaga last night by drawing 2-2 in the first leg of the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey at the Nou Camp. Goals came from Messi and Puyol and were somewhat cancelled out by Iturra who capitalized on a bad pass from Pinto in the 25^th minute and the goal by Camacho in the last minute of play.

Tito Vilanova had a bench full of stars in the form of Valdés, Piqué, Cesc, Xavi, Sergio Busquets, Pedro and Jordi Alba that dominated the game but couldn’t capitalize on its chances with Malaga trying to hold the ball and spring the occasional surprise attack.

It didn’t take long for Barca to get into their groove and heat up the cold stadium that had the fans bored. A great combination move from Thiago and Messi on the edge of the area ended with a lob from thiago that cleared the Malaga defense and nearly found Kameni’s goal. Just four minutes on the clock and Alexis sent the ball into the fans with only Kameni to beat from a perfect ball from Adriano. With these two warnings, Barca had let Malaga know that they meant business.

Barca’s Chilean striker remained in the spotlight, this time for seeing a yellow card for allegedly simulating a penalty kick.

Then it was the turn of Iturra and he made it one nil to Malaga. Barca had all the play and seemed to have the game under control until a defensive error enabled the Chilean midfielder to score. A bad pass by Jose Manuel Pinto under pressure to Thiago let Iturra pounce in through the back door to beat the Barca keeper in a one-on-one without any problems.

Messi and Puyol to the rescue

The joy of Malaga was enormous after scoring but their happiness did not last long as five minutes later the Catalan side evened up the scoreboard. First up was Messi, robbing the ball from Weligton on the right wing and stroking the ball past Kameni with his left foot. Then it was the turn of Carles Puyol with a sensational header to the back of the net just 2 minutes later from a corner. This effectively put Barca back in control and Malaga on the back foot.

The referee seemed to want to play an important part in the match and showed Messi a yellow card for protesting an offside and more errors from Alexis Sanchez just in front of goal was beginning to test the patience of the Barca crowd.

Looking to extend the lead

The message was clear at half time. The goal conceded by Barca obliged the Catalans to score one or two more to be able to travel to Malaga with some decent goal difference. Barca continued to dominate but their chances were greatly reduced by Malaga.

Pellegrini looked to freshen up his attack with Roque Santa Cruz coming on for Saviola, who ended his performance with two tame shots at goal.

Andres Iniesta provided us once more with a football master class every time he touched the ball. The Malaga team were put through the ringer when Andrés got the ball and were at times powerless to stop him heading towards goal.

Two changes and a sending off

The clash started to get dangerous for Barca as the Malaga team on a couple of occasions reached Pinto’s goal and the Nou Camp started to get uneasy as a draw was starting to look on the cards. With a double change by Barca and the sending off of Monreal, things began to look up.

Cristian Tello and Alexis went off for Cesc and Pedro and Malaga were soon down to 10 men. Cesc provided an assist to Pedro who Monreal had no option but to tak eout as he was the last line of defense. The red card came out and Malaga were down to 10.

With the extra man, Barca notched it up a gear and looked for the third goal. Xavi came on but it wasn’t enough to worry the Malaga defense.

Camacho leaves the Nou Camp dumbstruck

When there was just a minute of normal time to play, Camacho scored the goal that left the stadium in silence. The goal originated from a free kick near the halfway line. Duda put the cross in and Camacho got in front of his marker Adriano to put the ball past a helpless Pinto.

Next Thursday Barca will be forced to finish the job at La Rosaleda if they want to be in the semifinals where they will meet either Valencia or Real Madrid.