This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…
Ernesto Valverde probably won’t be truly satisfied with Barcelona’s performance against Slavia Prague on Wednesday.
Yes, Barca clinched all three points in a tough away Champions League clash but their narrow 2-1 victory leaves a rather sour aftertaste.
And things started off so well – Lionel Messi found Slavia Prague’s net after less than five minutes and everything pointed towards another comfortable victory for the Catalan giants. An equaliser came on 50 minutes, however, with Jan Boril on the scoresheet.
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The brave hosts fought until the very end and they came so close to at least snatching away a point for their troubles.
An unlucky deflection from a Luis Suarez shot ended up in their own net and even though they kept knocking on Barcelona’s door until the very last second of the game, they couldn’t level things up for the second time on the night.
Not for the lack of trying, though.
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As a whole, they attempted 24 shots compared to Barcelona 13 and were it not for Marc-Andre ter Stegen, the final result might have been very different from the one we got in the end.
But Blaugrana’s stopper was once again immaculate, saving a total of eight shots in the process, six of which were attempted from inside the penalty area.
Not only that but he also recorded one punch and was extremely good with his distribution, tallying 76% passing accuracy with 40 touches and six accurate long balls.
Considering that he was under fire for practically the entire 90 minutes, he did a brilliant job and kept Barcelona from completely losing their grip on the game.
The most worrying thing, however, is that this is not the first time he has had to save them from a potential disaster.
Practically the same thing happened when Barca visited Signal Iduna Park and ter Stegen had to work his magic to salvage a point against Borussia Dortmund.
They might have picked up a victory over Slavia but it’s rather questionable whether they actually deserved it in the first place.
Had it not been for their goalkeeper, this could have been a truly atrocious evening.