Rather than doing a match report for each game I have decided to pick one match and do a more lengthy report on that game as I am struggling to do them regularly.
Barcelona de Guayaquil 2 - 1 FC Skonto Riga 
7.
Vitaly Kalyabin
56.
Vitaly Kalyabin
90. Christián Coronel
Barcelona went to Riga top of the table and would have been wary of an impronig Riga team full of confidence and which had only lost once away from home this season. With players of the quality of
Christián Coronel and
Andrey Danilovs they have the ability to suprise teams as they have seen and done it all before. Barcelona however got the perfect start, new signing
Vitaly Kalyabin scored his first goal since his move 4.4m from
FC Groningen and at that price, he looks like a bargain. A neat finish from the striker was made easier by the perfect through ball from
Hiroshi Murakami, the vision and weight of pass left
Andrei Miknevitz looking like he needed directions to find his own goal he was so confused. This should have set Barcelona on their way to an easy win but [urlhttp://www.footballglory.com/players/player.php?id=19890] Dan Piche[/url] had other ideas. He was booked for a rugged challenge in the first minute and really should have adjusted the way he played after that. But with only 15 minutes on the clock he tugged the shirt of
Raimonds Vlasik and his was the only suprised face in the whole stadium when the referee rightly produced the second yellow card.
Barcelona then dug in for a while as they weatehred the response from Riga heartened by the prospect of facing 10 men for the next 75 minutes. However Barcelno were smarter on the ball than Riga who seemed to be forcing the game and trying to play the decisive ball too early and not making Barcelona work hard enough to retrieve the ball. It was from a careless pass on 56 minutes from
Mario Gigonoli that led to the second Barcelona goal. A risky looking square ball across his area was picked off by
Orri Kolvidsson, he played in
Vitaly Kalyabin and just as he looked set to score he was hacked down by
Andrei Miknevitz who was shwon a straight red, again correctly by the referee. Bedlum ensued as the Riga players lost their discipline and surrounded the referee. Once things had calmed down,
Vitaly Kalyabin showed he was the calmest person in the ground by despatching the resultant penalty with ease.
There was still more drama to come however as Abuda appeared to get the ball cleanly in a tackle with
Valery Karavayev, play continued, but the referee brought play back for what he saw as foul play and despite Karavayev pleading with the referee that he had not been touched, Abuda had to go.
Down to 9 men Barcelona understandably settled for what they had and set about seeing out the remaining 24 minutes, which they mearly managed, until
Christián Coronel ghosted in behing the tiring Barcelona defence to set up a tense period of 4 minutes of injury time, but that was to be an end to thr dramas.
Barcelona stay top, but with all the other contenders winning it was as you were with Riga the only losers, however with a bit more composure on the ball and a little more patience, they could easily have won this game.
