Here is Sid Lowe’s report.
Right, I’ll be off then. Here’s a few highlights from Quique Setien’s post-match reaction. Bye!
I think it was a notable result and performance. We lacked a bit of effectiveness in front of goal in the first half, but Granada defended very well and it wasn’t easy to break through. The weather wasn’t great, it was very windy. But I’m happy, because we only conceded one shot in the first half. I think we did a lot of things well, and little by little I hope that we keep on improving and we have a bit more fluidity and effectiveness in front of goal. We need to find different ways to hurt teams.
The only coach in the last 14 years of La Liga football to debut with as much possession as Setien was Pep Guardiola.
82,6% - El nuevo técnico del @FCBarcelona, Quique Setién, se ha convertido en el segundo entrenador con la posesión más alta en un partido de @LaLiga desde al menos la 05/06, tras Pep Guardiola (84% vs Racing de Santander en 2011 y 83,9% ante el Levante en 2011). Estreno. pic.twitter.com/8pXNn5efBJ
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) January 19, 2020
The home side ended with 83% of possession, 18 shots (to Granada’s five) and six on target (to Granada’s one, which came two minutes into stoppage time). But they couldn’t break Granada down until they went down to 10 men, and even then couldn’t do it very often. Work to do, but the main thing is that they pocketed the points.
Victory takes Barcelona back to the top of the table, ahead of Real Madrid on goal difference (theirs is superior by two).
Final score: Barcelona 1-0 Granada
90+4 mins: It’s all over! Barcelona have won! It wasn’t that impressive, for all their possession, but it’ll do for now.
90+3 mins: Messi plays it short, and Barcelona ping the ball around a bit.
90+3 mins: Barcelona break and win a corner, which is probably going to be where the action ends.
90+2 mins: Granada have a shot! Machis with it, from 25 yards, but it goes straight to Ter Stegen.
90+1 mins: Into stoppage time. We’ll have about three minutes of it.
90 mins: Barcelona work it from right to left, back to right, back left, and into the middle. Eventually they decide they might as well have a shot, but Griezmann’s effort goes straight into a defender. Thirty seconds later he has another, also from the edge of the area, that also goes straight into a defender.
87 mins: Jordi Alba bursts into the area, but his cross from the left is too high for Arthur to head in at the back stick!
85 mins: Granada have an attacking free-kick, but when the ball is sent into the box it’s headed straight back out again.
84 mins: Chance for a second! Puig bursts forward and passes to Vidal, who hits a left-foot shot into the side netting!
83 mins: I was wrong about that sub thing, because Vidal has just been replaced by Arthur. Now we’re all out of subs.
80 mins: Carles Perez comes on for Ansu Fati. We’re now all out of subs.
79 mins: Save! Barcelona, having been poor for the first 75 minutes of the game, now have the wind in their sails! Messi curls in a shot which was dipping towards the top corner until Rui Silva tipped it to safety!
GOAL! Barcelona 1-0 Granada (Messi, 76 mins)
The breakthrough! And guess who scores the first goal of the Setien era? It’s a nice build-up: Messi passes to Griezmann, who flicks to Vidal, who controls and backheels to Messi, now 12 yards out, who passes it into the corner!
72 mins: Granada bring Yan Eteki off, and bring on another centre-back in the shape of Jose Antonio Martinez. Just before that, Fernandez is booked.
71 mins: Barcelona bring Riqui Puig on for Rakitic. The fans seem very happy about it.
Red card! Granada go down to 10 men!
69 mins: Messi is tripped out on the right. It’s a pretty innocuous challenge, but it earns him a second yellow card!
66 mins: Nearly a goal - for Granada! Sergi Roberto gives it away in his own half, it’s passed to Yan Eteki, and his 20-yarder smacks the base of the post!
65 mins: Vadillo thunders a shot well over the bar and is immediately substituted, Antonio Puertas coming on.
64 mins: Vidal fouls Machis, and Granada can have a shot of their own here, from 30 yards or so.
63 mins: Messi’s shot flicks off a defender and goes wide. As it does so, one of the adverts that are laid out just off the pitch on either side of the goal blows into the penalty area.
62 mins: A pile-up of bodies on the edge of Granada’s area ends with a Barcelona free-kick, presumably for German’s challenge on Griezmann.
60 mins: German gets booked, for landing his foot on Vidal’s.
58 mins: Barcelona really don’t seem to have many clever ideas here. Still, there’s always Messi. He runs at the heart of the Granada defence, but then loses the ball to them.
56 mins: Messi passes to Rakitic, who tries a first-time backheel return which is a complication too many. Granada bring Yangel Herrera on for Azeez.
53 mins: Vidal picks Gonalons’ pocket, and suddenly Barcelona have four forwards with only two defenders around to deal with them. Vidal passes inside to Messi, who returns it right to Vidal, and with Rui Silva rushing towartds him the Chilean fails to produce a decent cross.
50 mins: Oooh! Messi exchanges passes with Fati and sends the ball curling towards the far corner with his left foot, from 30 yards or so. The ball bounces a yard wide.
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48 mins: Granada have had the ball for a minute or two. They even mounted something that could be called an attack, getting three or four bodies in the box to compete for a right-wing cross. There’s no shot at the end of it, but still, fair dos.
46 mins: Peeeeeeep! They’re off!
The players are back in the tunnel/staircase area. Can Barcelona find the key to unlock the Granada defence? We’re about to find out!
Half time: Barcelona 0-0 Granada
45+1 mins: Barcelona have had 82% of possession and eight shots to Granada’s one, but only two of those have been on target and Rui Silva has been pretty comfortable. Must do better.
45 mins: Close! Jordi Alba gets down the left and pulls back to Messi, whose first-time shot whistles a foot wide of the near post!
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42 mins: Nothing much is happening here. Barcelona’s attacks end in Barcelona corners; Granada’s attacks end in Barcelona throw-ins.
39 mins: Lovely pass by Messi to Fati, but nobody busts a gut to offer him an option for a first-time centre, and the attack peters out. Another corner.
37 mins: Barcelona have twice got runners to the byline in the last couple of minutes, but both have been well tracked and have won nothing more than corners, neither of which have led to anything.
33 mins: Jordi Alba’s foot has been trodden on by Gonalons, and stays down while he makes sure the referee knows how angry he is about it. Barcelona put the ball out of play, but their player will be fine.
31 mins: Barcelona are not really finding a path through Granada’s defence. They have time, of course, and the away side’s fitness or focus may well let them down sooner or later, but still.
28 mins: Umtiti gives the ball away to Fernandez, who runs forward and then shoots well wide from 30 yards or so. Still, it’s a shot.
26 mins: Jordi Alba is pretty much playing in midfield, giving Barcelona a wonky 3-4-3 formation with a left-sided midfielder, three central midfielders and nobody on the right except Fati/Messi, who are interchanging in the forward line.
24 mins: This time Messi’s effort clips the wall and goes over.
23 mins: Messi is brought down by Gonalons, and can have another shot from this free-kick. As for that miss, Fati was clearly distracted by Foulquier’s unsuccessful attempt to get a foot the ball just before him.
22 mins: Impossible miss! Griezmann rolls the ball across goal, it runs to Fati at the back post, and he ... forgets to kick? Leaves it? Whatever, the ball is not in the net.
21 mins: Granada are pressing well as soon as the ball is in their half, but this constant chasing and harrying is going to knacker them out pretty quickly, and they are getting very little respite.
18 mins: Messi bustles into the area, but his shot hits Victor Diaz. The Argentinian gets the ball back and chips it to Vidal, who chests down and shoots limply at Rui Silva.
16 mins: Granada attack, and Fernandez is played into space on the left. Griezmann, though, sprints most of the length of the pitch to get into the right-back position, close him down and win the ball, and gets a healthy ovation for his pains.
14 mins: Messi’s shot floats over the bar. It is very windy in Barcelona tonight, which probably makes floated free-kicks a bit harder than usual.
12 mins: The evening’s first yellow card is shown to Machis, who brings Messi down from behind about 25 yards from goal. Very much Messi territory, this.
11 mins: Chance! Messi’s dancing feet, and a lucky rebound, takes him past a couple of defenders. He passes left to Jordi Alba, who moves it on to Fati, who spears over the bar from just inside the area!
10 mins: Barcelona keep winning free-kicks in Granada’s half but within 15 yards of the halfway line. Gonalons brings down Vidal from behind for the latest.
7 mins: Save! Griezmann passes to Fati, on the right side of the area, whose shot is parried by the keeper. Messi’s attempt to reach the rebound first ends with two defenders on the turf and a Granada free-kick.
4 mins: Barcelona are predictably possession-hogging, but are yet to threaten the Granada goal.
1 min: Peeeeeep! After a minute’s silence (though with some music playing) for Sergi Roberto’s mum, we’re off!
Watford fans will be familiar with the Granada left-back, Dimitri Foulquier, who made three substitute appearances for them this season before moving on loan to Spain. He didn’t look very good.
And out they come! Setien himself, looking both in manner and clothing like an undertaker, follows.
The players gather in the Camp Nou’s tunnel/staircase thing.
I wonder what Roy Keane, who was raging a little earlier about the silly hats worn by a couple of Manchester United players during their warm-up at Anfield, would think of this:
He could at least smile for the camera. It looks like he’s come to identify the corpse of a beloved but recently-deceased hamster.
💙🆕❤️@QSetien arrives at the Camp Nou for his first game as @FCBarcelona manager!#BarçaGranada pic.twitter.com/ZyZdqOYciP
— LaLiga (@LaLigaEN) January 19, 2020
The teams!
Quique Setien’s first Barcelona XI looks like this: Ter Stegen, Sergi Roberto, Piqué, Umtiti, Jordi Alba; Busquets, Vidal, Rakitic; Messi, Griezmann, Ansu Fati.
👥 Barça XI#BarçaGranada
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) January 19, 2020
🔵🔴 ¡Vamos Barça!
🔴⚪️ Once del #Granada vs @FCBarcelona_es. #BarçaGranada #EternaLucha pic.twitter.com/obhqUeGqrX
— Granada C.F. ❤️⚪️ (@GranadaCdeF) January 19, 2020
Hello world!
It’s a new dawn at the Nou Camp, as Quique Setién makes his managerial bow against 10th-placed Granada. Here, allow Sid Lowe to set the scene for you:
“It’s not normal to take over at a team that’s top,” Quique Setién said after the call that took him from a stroll among the cows in Liencres, Cantabria, to a job among the sacred cows at the Camp Nou. “When you’re out of work, waiting for an opportunity, you imagine a team near the bottom, in trouble,” said Barcelona’s new manager. Instead on Sunday night he will occupy his place in the dugout at a place where they have not seen their team lose for 38 games, going back more than a year – not since the last time he was there.
Ernesto Valverde lost one home game as Barcelona manager: to Setién’s Real Betis, 4-3 in November 2018. As a player Setién beat Barcelona too. In Santander some Racing fans still cling to the old, fading T-shirt that celebrated their 5-0 victory over the Dream Team in February 1995 like some religious relic. On the front is a green hand, a finger for every goal they put past Carlos Busquets, Sergio’s father, the scorer’s name at each of its tips: Esteban Torre, Jesús Merino, Dmitri Radchenko, twice, and Quique Setién.
Much more here:
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