The away match against Celta was Barcelona's last league game before the Champions League 1 8 final against Napoli, and although the team won with Lewandowski's penalty in stoppage time, Barcelona's performance was still difficult to call better. However, Barcelona coach Xavi is still in a positive mood, saying that the team is performing well, and showing big data that Barcelona should be at the top of La Liga in terms of its ability to create chances.
Gundogan is resting, Lewandowski is the best
Although Celta has not achieved good results this year, it has always been Barcelona's small nemesis, although Barcelona has a Champions League game on Wednesday, coach Xavi is still unable to let a large number of main players rest, Araujo, who has been playing with injuries, has partnered with Cubasi as the main central defender in this round after the last rotation, and only Gundogan has been rested among the absolute main players, which makes Pedri the team's offensive playmaker, while De Jong and Christensen play double midfield. Up front, Robert Lewandowski and Lamine Yamal have become irreplaceable players, with Vito Roque starting after the ban was lifted.
Barcelona played more organised in the first half, with the team largely dominating the midfield, and the biggest problem was that the handling of the last pass or shot was still not ideal. In the 10th minute, Vito Roque played the ball for Yamal, and the Barcelona youngster's shot on the line of the penalty area was saved by the goalkeeper as the team's first chance. In the 22nd minute, De Jong made a steal in front, and Barcelona got a 3-on-2 mini counterattack opportunity in front, but Vito Roque did not stop the ball after receiving Lewandowski's pass and wasted this opportunity. Brazilian youngster Vito Roque has scored consecutive goals from the bench but has shown his inspiration and talent for scoring goals, but it will take time to adapt to the rhythm of European football.
In the 45th minute, Lewandowski received a pass from Yamal in front of the penalty area, and the Polish center shook off the defender and volleyed in time, the force and angle of the volley were extremely well controlled, and the whole goal process was completed in one go, which is the level of Lewandowski, and it is also the level of Lewandowski when Barcelona won the league championship last season, but this season has rarely seen Lewandowski perform like this.
But at the beginning of the second half, Barcelona still failed to avoid the embarrassment of conceding goals in the opening or closing five minutes in recent games, and the goals conceded in this game are still related to the team's injuries. Araujo, who has been playing with an injury, performed well in the first half, but the midfielder felt uncomfortable with his muscles and wanted to hold on at first, but chose to give up when it came time to play. As a result, substitute Inigo Martinez of Araujo did not have time to warm up, and the Basque centre-back was not 100 per cent fit, and had to warm up with his legs while changing clothes before the second half. Sure enough, only 2 minutes into the second half, Celta center Larsson carried the teenager Cubasi in front of the penalty area, and former Barcelona right-back Mingosa inserted the ball and crossed the vacant Aspas, and Aspas's shot was blocked by Kounde like his own goal, 1-1. Inigo Martinez's position was blurred throughout Celta's attack, and his presence behind Cubasi led to a space between him and Kounde, which was eventually exploited by Aspas. Reflecting on the goal after the game, Xavi said: "The equaliser was because Inigo was not in the right position, he had just come on and the opposition played a very simple wall-to-wall combination that allowed a dangerous player like Aspas to get an open shot, it was a clear mistake of concentration at the back, like the mistakes we made all season. We didn't drop points today, the mistake was just an anecdote, there's no need to focus on it, we need to know that we won. ”
Barcelona was quickly equalized in the second half, and also lost the control of the midfield, although Xavi quickly replaced Christensen with Gundogan, who was rested in the 58th minute, and replaced Vito Roque with Raphinha, who lacked performance, but Barcelona was still passive on the field, and was never able to regain control of the game in the first half, and finally could only use Inigo Martinez's long passing ability to frequently launch long passes to find offensive opportunities, but this also made Gundogan, Pedri and others' central offensive preparations nullified. The only bright spot for Barcelona was Yamal, who had three successive changes of direction when he broke through the opposition left-back Ristic on the right flank, causing the opponent to strain his thigh muscles and be replaced.
Until the 91st minute, Lewandowski crossed from the right, Cancelo headed the ball to the middle on the left side, after the ball was cleared, Celta player Beltran wanted to clear the siege, but kicked Yamal, the referee decisively awarded a penalty, the absurdity of this penalty is not whether the referee is fair, but that few defenders clear the ball and can kick the opponent. Lewandowski took the penalty but was saved by the goalkeeper, but because the goalkeeper moved early, Lewandowski got a second chance, and the Pole played the same angle, 2-1, and Barcelona finally won the game.
Harvey praised himself for announcing his departure ahead of schedule and not being recognized
Barcelona struggled to win Celta Vigo and finally had a ray of sunshine shine through the dense clouds before the start of the Champions League knockout round. But the club seems to be running out of energy, and Deco, as the club's head of athletics, is currently emaciated, and he even joked with reporters at the airport when he went to Vigo: "If I lose the game against Celta Vigo again, I won't go back to Barcelona with the Barcelona delegation, I'll go back to Porto." ”
Last week, a Portuguese ** published an interview with Deco, in which Deco made a statement that Barcelona's style of football (referring to Cruyff football) can no longer continue, and Barcelona's future new coach must be separated from the past, and Deco also said that his idea was agreed by President Laporta. The publication of this interview caused an uproar, and as a last resort, Deco asked the reporter to change the interview, and the Portuguese journalist also gave an interview to Catalonia** saying that he had misunderstood what Deco meant, so the matter was closed.
Laporta also showed good patience after arriving in Vigo, and compared to the last game when he flipped the table on the rostrum, the Barcelona president was very patient on this trip, and even signed the ink of the autograph pen when signing autographs for the fans. However, when Laporta signed his autograph, there was an anecdote that one fan kept shouting: "Laporta, sign Mbappe." Laporta didn't pay attention to the fan at first, but seeing that the fan didn't mean to stop, Laporta signed his autograph and said: "You don't understand anything. "Judging from Barcelona's current economic situation, it is indeed a ridiculous request for fans to sign Mbappe, Barcelona has suffered non-payment because of the leverage of selling its studio, and the money that has been used up must be re-deducted by the financial fairness, and Barcelona needs to face **100 million assets to make up, but Barcelona now has no assets to sell, and can only sell the absolute main players in the team to make up the account. In addition, whether Barcelona's new Camp Nou Stadium can be built as scheduled, and Barcelona's low attendance at the Stadio Olimpico leads to the inability to reach the budget revenue is Laporta's trouble, how can the president of Barcelona still be in the mood to sing about the introduction of Mbappe?
Barça's positive energy now seems to be only provided by coach Xavi, who praised the performance of the team and Lewandowski after the game against Celta: "Robert is full of energy now, like the whole team, it is touching to see the unity of the team, no matter what the outside world says. Lewandowski played at a better level, he didn't leave the box and he had the personality to take the penalty again. The team is doing well on defense and in a good position when attacking. We were much better than we were against Granada. The big data they gave me showed that in terms of the chances created, we should be number one in La Liga. What we lack is to take advantage of these opportunities. We've got 10 out of 12 points since I announced my departure at the end of the season, which proves that I was right and that it's good for the team that I'm leaving. ”
The problem is that the positive energy given by Xavi is not based on seeking truth from facts, Barcelona played well in the first half of this game, and was obviously inferior to the opponent in the second half, with 14 shots on goal only 1 more than the opponent, and 4 shots on target were the same as the opponent, as for the big data that Xavi said, everyone didn't know that it was the big data from ** until press time, so it was impossible to corroborate what Xavi said.
After the game, commentator Emilio said: "Speaking of big data, I think the first thing that big data shows is that Barcelona should not look for Xavi as a manager. Xavi is by no means the worst Barcelona manager I've ever seen, but he is definitely the worst Barcelona manager in the press room, and he says every day that we see something completely different, that he lives in another parallel universe every day. ”
Another commentator, Miguel, scoffed at Xavi's self-satisfaction, saying: "In the last five games, Barcelona has faced Villarreal in 15th, Osasuna in 12th, Alaves in 11th, Granada in 19th and Celta in 17th. In addition, Xavi always says that he announced that he left at the end of the season, and the players will play better, which is disrespectful to the professionalism of Barcelona players, which is equivalent to saying that they are all looking forward to the coach leaving so they will play well? ”