Alaves 1-1 Barca: Halloween fun cancelled for Koeman

Halloween is all but cancelled in Spain, with the country on edge because of the coronavirus. Any seasonal fun was cancelled for Ronald Koeman's Barcelona too. There are many ways you can look at this game but all of them end up in the same conclusion - Barca weren’t good enough.

They weren’t good enough in terms of play before Alaves had Jota sent off on the hour mark, and weren’t good enough in terms of finishing after that.

They weren’t good enough to beat Alaves keeper Fernando Pacheco, who had a fine game, and sit as low as 12th in the table after six matches, eight points behind Real Madrid. They have taken two points from the last 12 available in La Liga. That doesn’t look good for Ronald Koeman, who looked dejected on the bench as the minutes ticked by.

Barcelona started in the worst possible fashion, with a Pique pass putting Neto under pressure and the goalkeeper getting in a muddle, robbed by Luis Rioja, who tapped into the empty net.

Ansu Fati had missed a good chance on his 18th birthday, firing wide, while Griezmann was off target and Messi had a free kick cleared off the line, before the Alaves goal.

Frenkie de Jong was pushed over in the area but did not get a penalty (did Barcelona forget to tick yes to VAR when signing up to this year’s edition of La Liga?)

Koeman took action at half-time, hooking the awful Busquets for Pjanic, moving Frenkie de Jong back to centre-back with Lenglet and Dembele replaced by Pedri and Trincao.

Barcelona were brighter after the break, helped by Jota’s second yellow for a high foot on Pique.

Antoine Griezmann levelled second later, with the ball breaking for him in the box, and the French striker dinking over Pacheco, who soon became unbeatable.

Messi was denied by an outstanding save, while Sergino Dest and Pjanic also had efforts repelled by the flying keeper. Pique had a header cleared off the line as Barcelona dominated but did not find a way through.