Cadiz: Barcelona continued their disappointing run in La Liga with a goalless draw against Cadiz on Friday at Nuevo Mirandilla. With just two wins from five games, Barcelona are languishing at seventh in the table while arch-rivals Real Madrid continue to dominate at the top.
To make matters worse, Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong was controversially sent off sparking protests from Gerard Pique, Sergi Roberto, Sergio Busquets, De Jong himself, and coach Ronald Koeman. Ironically, Koeman also received the same fate as his Dutch ward.
Barcelona made a lazy start to the match, with Koeman already under pressure since the last few matches were utterly disappointing for the Catalan giants and the frustration got to the players as well as the fans.
Alvaro Negredo tested Marc Andre Ter Stegen just after the restart in the second half, the German keeper rose to the occasion diving high, to deny a probable Cadiz goal. De Jong received two yellow cards within a span of four minutes as Barcelona were rendered to 10 men.
The Dutch midfielder was forced to leave the pitch after a couple of clumsy tackles, Memphis Depay got the best chance of the match when he was played in by Pique and had only the opposition keeper to beat but he fired wide.
During the dying minutes, Koeman received a straight red and was asked to leave the sideline. With this draw, Barcelona are sitting outside the top five, way well below the Champions League qualifying zone.
Although Roberto believes they have what it needs to win the league, the results have been otherwise. “Here we have to try and win La Liga. This notion of ‘it’s ok to finish in the top four’ doesn’t work for me,” Roberto said.
“We need to fight for the league. The squad is very good, and we have some injuries but that’s not an excuse. We’ve got a squad who can fight for the La Liga title and I don’t think other sides have better squads than us,” added the La Masia graduate.
