[SPAIN] Barcelona’s 1-1 tie with Racing Santander at home on Saturday left the Catalan giant with just one point in two games — marking its worst start in 35 years and leaving first-year coach Pep Guardiola in the hot seat.
“I can’t criticize the players as I am very happy with their attitude,” said Guardiola. “Soccer is the only sport where you can win without having any real shots on goal. Our opponents [Numancia in its 1-0 win and Racing] have hardly threatened our goal but have still taken five points from us.”
Guardiola made several bold moves following the 1-0 loss at Numancia. He dropped Thierry Henry and had Bojan Krkic, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi starting the game on the bench.
Instead, he gave starts to Sergi Busquets, 20, and Pedrito, 21.
Barcelona, which was welcoming its international players back from World Cup qualifying debut, returns to action in less than 48 hours. It hosts Sporting Lisbon in its UEFA Champions League opener on Tuesday.
Barcelona will be without Belarus winger Alexander Hleb, signed from Arsenal in the summer, for at least three weeks after spraining his left ankle sprain in the Racing game.
LA LIGA RESULTS:
Sept. 13-14/Day 2
Valladolid 2 (Dorado 3, Baraja 28-pen) Atletico Madrid 1 (Aguero 54)
Barcelona 1 (Messi 70-pen) Racing Santander 1 (Pereira 76)
Sevilla 4 (Chevanton 21, Kanoute 36, 59, Maresca 37) Sporting Gijon 3 (Castro 17, Bilic 20, 45)
Malaga 0 Athletic Bilbao 0.
Recreativo 0 Espanyol 1 (Garcia 84).
Getafe 0 Real Betis 0.
Villarreal 1 (Cazorla 27) Dep. Coruna 0.
Real Mallorca 1 (Aduriz 15) Osasuna 1 (Portillo 84).
Almeria 2 (Piatti 20, Negredo 40) Valencia 2 (Alexis 35, David Villa 69).
Real Madrid 4 (Guti 19, Higuain 26, van der Vaart 34, own goal 40) Numancia 3 (Moreno 7, 57, Barkero 22).