He appeared, already 37 years old, and that youth team as surprising as it was fun that played and won the League in exchange for scoring more goals than the opponent in each game, the same one that since the summer seemed lost, unable to win on Wednesday in Bruges, claimed a victory of great merit in Vigo. The Pole’s three goals elevated Barça in an important day of the championship due to the difficulty of the Balaídos match and the leader’s tie in Vallecas. The white sterility contrasted with the fertility of the Blaugrana, who are three points behind Real Madrid after recovering their best color on the rainy night in Vigo.
2
Ionut Radu, Marcos Alonso, Carl Starfelt, Manu Fernández (Miguel Román, min. 77), Hugo Sotelo (Jones El Abdellaoui, min. 77), Ilaix Moriba, Óscar Mingueza (Javi Rodríguez, min. 45), Sergio Carreira, Pablo Durán, Borja Iglesias (Iago Aspas, min. 69) y Ferran Jutglà (Bryan Zaragoza, min. 57)
4
Wojciech Szczesny, Alejandro Balde (Gerard Martín, min. 85), Pau Cubarsí, Eric García, Ronald Araujo, Fermín López, Dani Olmo (Andreas Christensen, min. 85), Frenkie de Jong, Robert Lewandowski, Marcus Rashford (Ferran Torres, min. 87) and Lamine Yamal (Marc Bernal, min. 96)
Goals
0-1 min. 9: Lewandowski. 1-1 min. 10: Sergio Carreira. 1-2 min. 36: Lewandowski. 2-2 min. 42: Borja Iglesias. 2-3 min. 48: Lamine Yamal. 2-4 min. 72: Lewandowski
Referee Javier Alberola Rojas
yellow cards
Cubarsí (min. 41), Frenkie De Jong (min. 78), Rashford (min. 86), Lewandowski (min. 87), Miguel Román (min. 88)
red cards
Frenkie De Jong (min. 93)
Barcelona’s response to a Sunday of great expectation was categorical for the game and the score: 2-4 The doubts disappeared with water after a very well-competed contest by the team. A first half played with bare chests, decisive in regaining confidence, was followed by a second half of control and solidity for Barcelona and frustration for Celta.
Urged by Flick, his players came together to be a recognizable team because they took the same risks as last year and emerged victorious in a very delicate challenge against the brave Celta. The Blaugrana strengthened themselves in the midfield and once again became a credible squad due to their intensity and efficiency, voracious as their coach demands, more hopeful after beginning to recover troops like Lewandowski and .
Barça played with a very offensive formation because before starting the game Casadó fell and Olmo came on, who stood in the midfield line behind Lamine, Rashford and Lewandowski. The Pole celebrated his ownership very early with a penalty goal after Marcos Alonso’s hands were warned by the Var after a shot from Fermín. Neither the goal nor the Barça lineup conditioned Celta’s plan, the team that last season already discovered how to attack Barça’s offside line based on the depth of Pablo Durán and Mingueza on the sides and the movements on the boundary of Borja Iglesias. The tie came immediately after when Carreira found himself in an open field after knocking down a wall on the divider and did not stop running until he beat a paralyzed Szczesny.
The 2-1 did not come immediately because Jutglá’s shot went over the crossbar in the same way that Radu avoided Rashford’s goal with Balaídos’ score at 0-1. There was no respite for either team in a round-trip match, as is customary when Barça plays, always ready to exchange blows and much improved in Balaídos compared to several of the matches already played and especially the last one in Bruges. Barcelona’s pressure was more effective, the intensity was noticeable and Lamine was as constant in attack as in defense to the unrest of Celta, more comfortable in someone else’s field than his own, aware of the vulnerability of Barcelona’s defense, recomposed in Vigo with Eric García as right back and Cubarsí as center back due to the injury of the distempered Koundé.
Barça defended poorly, having been continually depressed in the last ten games, and attacked well, especially since Lewandowski finished the play, author of the 1-2 after attacking a very good cross from Rashford, Borja Iglesias did not take long to equalize with a mid-distance shot that had no response other than the look on the part of Szczesny, a goalkeeper who only makes sense on the goal line, clumsy outside the goal and an easy target for Celta as well. Barcelona was not demoralized, always well oriented with the leather in a match with a brutal pace, relieved before reaching the break with a goal from Lamine, very opportunistic with and that Ilaix Moriba failed to deny.
The break served to temper the Barcelona fans, who appeared on the field as a compact team, very united around De Jong. From possession, he ruled the match without defensive concessions and with a fourth goal, scored by Lewandowski after a corner taken by Rashford.
Neither Aspas nor Bryan Zaragoza, two players with bad memories for Barcelona, were able to change the script of a match that evoked the Barça of last year, Flick’s team, waiting for Raphinha and Pedri to rejoin. A relief for the Blaugrana that also comes when the League stops for national team matches and in anticipation of the opening of the new Camp Nou.
