Barcelona were in deep trouble for the first 38 minutes of their match against Real Zaragoza, and they should have had to fight much harder than they did to come up with a positive result. As good as Zaragoza were in the opening half hour of the match, they used the following hour to show exactly why they're in La Liga's relegation zone. What should have been a very challenging match for Barcelona ended up with a 4-1 win for the Blaugranas.
Real Zaragoza Vs. Barcelona, 2012 La Liga: Blaugranas Aided By Wasteful Opposition
Things got off to a bad start for Barca in the 24th minute, when Victor Valdes gave away a penalty with an unnecessary foul. Carlos Aranda stepped up to take the penalty, but didn’t take a terrific one and Valdes made the save. In the 32nd minute, Aranda redeemed himself. He ran onto a through ball by Pablo Álvarez and took a shot, which was saved, but he finished the rebound to give Zaragoza a surprising 1-0 lead over Barcelona.
It only took four minutes for them to give that lead away. Goalkeeper Roberto Gago made a terrible mistake on a corner kick, going for a punch when he had little chance of clearing the ball. He deflected it directly into the path of Carles Puyol, who finished brilliantly to equalize. Two minutes later, Lionel Messi found the back of the net with a brilliant shot into the roof of the net from close range, giving Barcelona the lead for good.
Just before the stroke of halftime, Abraham Minero picked up a second yellow card to ensure that Zaragoza would start the second half with 10 men. This allowed Barcelona to simply knock the ball around throughout the second half and sit on their lead. Barcelona would score their third in the 87th minute, with Lionel Messi converting a penalty, and Pedro added a fourth in stoppage time for good measure.
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