On March 22, Riqui Puig left in the face of a few friends from the Johan Cruyff stadium turf. Barça B had not gone beyond a goalless draw against Hercules in a Second B match, just the same week that Ansu Fati had played just three minutes at the San Paolo stadium in Naples. The two young men then only had football problems, just at a time when there were beginning to be temperature controls at airports and the covid-19 pandemic seemed isolated in northern Italy. But soon after the world stopped. And once you can finally play the return match of the round of 16 of the Champions League against the Italians, half of the players who drew against Hercules half a year ago have been called up by Quique Setión. Men like Araujo, Monchu, Mingueza, Konrad, Reis and Jandro, as well as Riqui Puig and Ansu Fati. Barça, the club with the highest market price in the world, is playing for the future with just 13 first-team players.
Quique Setién: “I never thought this could be my last game at Barça”
The match against Napoli (21 h / Movistar Champions) has become a trial for a Barça that in case of a fall would be left without winning a title for the first time since 2008. Losing the Super Cup triggered the farewell of Valverde, relieved by a Setión that in few days already was eliminated of the Glass. And after the pandemic, he was left without revalidating the League that Valverde had made his own. Setión arrived to improve his performance thinking precisely about this Champions League, which in recent years has become a nightmare for a Barcelona player who has been waiting for five seasons to see Lionel Messi again with the trophy in his hands. If falling to Juve hurt in 2017, doing so in Rome in 2018 was worse. And Anfield, a year later, became the scene of one of the great shipwrecks in the recent history of a Barça that needs to reach the final stage in Lisbon to save the project. And by the way, prevent Setión from packing. “Continuing next season would be good news, it would mean that things have gone well,” said Sergio Busquets, who spoke despite being one of the two players who will be out due to suspension, along with Arturo Vidal.
Without the League, the Cup and the Super Cup, Barça cling to the Champions League, thinking that with the new format, in a single match from the quarter-finals, the club is just four games away from winning the trophy. But to do so, Setión has been left with only 13 first-team players. If Busquets and Vidal are out due to suspension, Umtiti and Dembélé are still injured and Arthur Melo refuses to continue playing because he already wants to leave for Juve. The result is an expensive but short staff, and you have to think about the young people of the Masia to support the project. “It would have been better to have all the players, but we have youngsters from the branch who can help us. We can’t change the situation, we don’t have all the first team players, we have to adapt “, said a Setión who, in spite of everything, could come out with a 4-4-2 without Ansu Fati or Riqui Puig, two youngsters who time claiming to be starters in matches like this. “Riqui Puig and Ansu Fati are ready to start in the Champions League; when they played they did it well enough “, explained a Setión who made them play as starters in the first part of a training match, although in the second half he already left them on the bench and prioritized a Griezmann who was discharged just before the match. “I am satisfied with the level of the players in the branch. They are very daring players and they will surely do well in case of need in a different match “, explained a Setión who will have to decide if he chooses to play his most experienced men in this 4-4-2 -Sergi Roberto would play in the middle of the field- or if it gives gallons to the young people of La Masia.
Just when the club is negotiating to recover another talent from La Masia such as Eric García, Riqui Puig is confident of finally making his Champions League debut, in a few days in which Barça will have to assess whether to extend the Vallès contract, which ends in 2021, until in 2023, and by the way raising a termination clause that is now set at 100 million. “He’s ready, he’s been with us for some time now, proving his level,” said Busquets about the young man from Matadepera. Ansu also knows that they have to update his contract after having already made his Champions League debut where he became the youngest goal scorer in the tournament when he scored for Inter. But Ansu has already seen how important in other games he ended up on the bench despite having an average of goals per minute higher than Griezmann.
Setión does not suffer from his position
Setión knows the match is a final. “I never thought that this could be my last game at Barça,” he said, defending the work done so far. The sensations after the last league game were already good, and now we needed a break. Barça has not lost its identity, its DNA or its philosophy. Another thing is the nuances that each coach brings, always in coexistence with the essence of the club. We continue to work to improve every day, ”he said. And he admitted that he had not spoken to Arthur anymore: “His situation goes beyond my position.”
Napoli, with Lorenzo Insigne included in the list but with few options to start after being injured five days ago, still the game as the best chance in history to win at the Camp Nou. After the first leg draw (1-1), Gattuso’s team needs to score. But he gets there with his head held high, after having done what Barça have not achieved so far: winning a title, in this case, the Cup. The Champions League will rule for a Barça in which the youngsters seem ready to act as saviors. As has happened other times in the past.
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