La Liga 2018/19: Barcelona vs Eibar

La Liga returned to the Catalan capital this weekend as Barcelona hosted Eibar at the Camp Nou on a lovely Sunday afternoon. As much as the guests showed energy and pure will, in the end, it did not matter much as they fell to the league leaders in a rather one-sided fashion.

That at least is the story that the scoreline has told us after the game. As if the case more often than not, things are much more complicated than that, and they indeed were in this clash of the first and 16^th-placed teams in Spain.

This tactical analysis will use statistics and insight to determine how Barcelona overcame the initial resurgence of the away team and secured the three points in a sweet 3-0 victory.

Line ups

Barcelona (4-3-3)

Starting XI: Ter Stegen  Sergi, Pique, Lenglet, Alba  Rakitić, Busquets, Arthur  Messi, Suarez, Coutinho

Bench: Cillessen, Murillo, Semedo, Vidal, Aleña, Denis, Dembele

Coach: Ernesto Valverde

Eibar (4-2-3-1)

Starting XI: Riesgo  Peña, Bigas, Arbilla, Cote  Orellana, Escalante, Diop, Cucurella  Jordan, Sergi Enrich

Bench: Dmitrovic, Sergio A., Cardona, Oliveira, De Blasis, Kike, Pere Milla

Coach: Jose Mendilibar

Barcelona’s set-up

After a week of heavy rotation, Barcelona were back to their usual set-up as Ernesto Valverde opted for a more risk-free formation. The Ant fielded his gala XI with all the familiar faces gracing the pitch of the Catalan fortress.

Still, there were two differences to the Blaugrana puzzle this time around: Arthur Melo and Philippe Coutinho were back in the starting line-up, leaving Arturo Vidal and Ousmane Dembele on the bench in the process. The other matter was the choice of the right-back, with Semedo dropped in favour of Sergi Roberto once again.

The team operated in a 4-3-3 sys