Barcelona retain possession like no other Spanish side.
Norman Hubbard is ESPNsoccernet's resident anorak. If you have any questions on football facts, statistics or trivia, please send them to asknorman@hotmail.com and he'll try to answer as many as possible.
When watching Barcelona, naturally I'm amazed by their ability to keep possession. I was wondering when the last time they didn't have over 50% possession was? Kenji in Tokyo asked
Barcelona generate plenty of remarkable statistics and here is another: in Pep Guardiola's three-year reign at the Nou Camp, no other team has had possession for the majority of the game. To find an opponent with the ball for the lion's share of the match, we have to go back to the final game of Frank Rijkaard's reign, when Real Madrid beat Barca 4-1 in May 2008 and were in possession 55% of the time.
The closest to emulate them since then were Getafe who, in December 2010, had the ball for 50% of the match, according to ESPNsoccernet statistics. The best last season, by the way, and a side who consistently keep the ball well against Barca, were Valencia, who were in possession for 44% of a game (anything over 40% against Barcelona is rare, and Valencia regularly manage that).
By Norman Hubbard
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