Coach Valverde caused a huge surprise when he sent all 4 attack players Messi, Suarez, Griezmann and Dembele to the field from the start in the away match against the Leganes team. The Spanish coach surprised Barcelona even more when he arranged for them to play in a 4-2-3-1 formation instead of playing 4-3-3 as usual.
Right after the opening whistle, Barcelona flooded into the Leganes, putting great pressure. Before Barcelona's playing style, the home team chose to play a tight defense with a 5-4-1 formation.
Despite holding the ball 76 times ahead of Leganes' 24%, Barcelona were completely stuck in finding a way into goalkeeper Ivan Cuellar's goal. When the super strong attack had not yet been effective, Barca soon had to receive a bucket of cold water. In the 12th minute, Youssef En-Nesyri dribbled the ball from the right wing into Barca's penalty area before launching a superb left-footed curler that held goalkeeper Ter Stegen hand in hand.
After conceding, Barcelona pushed up their formation to play halfway, but their lackluster play made coach Valverde's team completely helpless in creating dangerous opportunities and could not score an equalizer in the first 45 minutes. Throughout the first half, the Catalan team only had one dangerous shot towards the Leganes goal, a header that goalkeeper Ivan Cuellar flew to block by Luis Suarez in the 31st minute.
In the second half, Leganes maintained their enthusiasm in the first minutes, but with a calmer head, Barca gradually showed their superiority. In the 53rd minute, class spoke up. When the brand booms were ineffective, the away team scored from a set piece.
In the 53rd minute, from a slightly wide kick on the left wing from more than 35m away, Messi launched a favorable cross for Suarez to cleverly choose the position to head the ball to equalize 1-1.
With an equalizer, Barcelona played more excitedly, but still did not create many blows and dangerous situations in front of Leganes because the owner still followed a disciplined and very focused defensive style of play.
In an unprecedented situation, Barcelona unexpectedly took a 2-1 lead in the 79th minute, thanks to a player's goal against Vidal.
After conceding, Leganes abandoned their defensive style of play, pushing up their formation to play more actively, but could not penetrate Stegen's net once more. As for Barcelona, the Catalan team proactively played slowly, waiting for opportunities to finish off their opponents, but could not score more goals. In the end, Barcelona struggled to overcome the bottom team Leganes with a score of 2-1.
