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#4 Barcelona held to a draw at the Camp Nou against Girona
Barcelona were facing Girona at home on MatchDay 5 of LaLiga after registering an easy victory against PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League clash earlier this week. Ernesto Valverde's side had won all of their LaLiga games so far this season and were up against a Girona side who had accumulated an impressive 7 points from 4 games.
Barcelona started in a 4-3-3 formation as they have done this season with Messi, Suarez and Ousmane Dembele in the front three while in midfield and defence, Valverde rested a few players from the Champions League tie and started with Lenglet, Arthur and Arturo Vidal.
Barcelona enforced a possession-based style from the start and were patient in creating their chances. In the 19th minute, Leo Messi combined with Arturo Vidal and scored to give Barcelona an early 1-0 lead. But things started to go south for Valverde's men when in the 35th minute a foul by Clement Lenglet on Pons was reviewed by VAR resulting in a red card for Lenglet and Barca were down to 10 men.
Girona took complete advantage of this situation as Stuani overpowered Pique to score from a Benitez cross right at the stroke of half-time to make it 1-1. The second half started with Girona well aware that the match could go either way and in the 51st minute Ter Stegen saved Portu's shot but Stuani struck in the rebound to score his second and hand Girona a 2-0 lead.
This forced Valverde to go back to his tried and tested combination bringing on Rakitic and Coutinho in place of the struggling Arthur and Vidal. In the 62nd minute, Messi received a free kick resulting into a corner from Bono. Barcelona took full advantage of this set piece with Suarez forcing a save from Bono and Pique heading into the net to equalize for Barcelona.
The match ended a 2-2 draw which would be a fantastic result for Girona, but for Barcelona, they would look to go back to winning ways as they take on Leganes in the midweek LaLiga match. Barcelona still sit top of the table with 13 points from 5 games ahead of Real Madrid on goal difference.
