Messi asks for unity in a Barça that visits a cursed stadium: Balaídos

Barça gave clues throughout last season of the looming debacle, which was confirmed on the day of the humiliating 2-8 against Bayern in the quarterfinals of the Champions League in Lisbon to close a year without titles. The signals had come in the trips away from the Camp Nou, with a very poor performance and poor results that ended up being decisive in the lost League.

Ronald Koeman’s new Barça needs to end that psychosis so that it stops affecting the players mentally. And he must do it now, this Thursday, in a damned stadium for the Barça team, well since the 2014-15 season (0-1) he has not won in Balaídos a Celta who has lost respect for him. Travel, yes, with the illusion of the good image shown in the league premiere against Villarreal (4-0) and with the tranquility derived from positive message from Leo Messi in an interview in which he ends the conflict with the club, even asking for forgiveness from the Catalans.

«After so many disagreements, I would like to put an end to it. We must unite all Barcelona fans because the best is yet to come. I assume my mistakes that if they existed were to make Barça stronger and better, “Messi told the Sport newspaper just five days after charging Josep Maria Bartomeu for the club’s form in the farewell of his friend Luis Suárez to Atlético. It is intuited that what he is seeing at Barça 2020-21 he likes and wants to focus on what may be the last season at the club, since his contract ends in 2021. He will also have to demonstrate his words with deeds very soon, specifically in Vigo, where he hasn’t scored since the 2012-13 season.

4-1 in 2015-16, 4-3 in 2016-17, 2-2 in 2017-18, 2-0 in 2018-19 and 2-2 in 2019-20, plus a 1- 1 cupbearer in January 2018. They are already six consecutive visits which Barça has taken without beating Celta in their stadium. The last, 2-2, began to take him away from the title last June. Iago Aspas, author of that draw in the last minutes with a diabolical free-kick, has scored six goals for the Barça team in Balaídos during that time. It’s a nightmare.

Ronald Koeman will not be able to count on injured Ter Stegen, Umtiti and Junior. The last signing was not on time either, Sergiño Dest, a 19-year-old American right-back from Ajax, a club that provided facilities for Barça to pay 20 million plus 5 million in installments. He passed the medical review and will be presented shortly. The Dutch coach is still confident that before the market closes on October 5 a center forward and a center back can arrive, but he understands that the economy makes it difficult. Memphis Depay (Lyon) y Eric García (Manchester City) are top of the list in both demarcations.

“It is very positive that the captain asks for unity, I hope we can be calmer now,” said Koeman, who advanced that will not rotate against Celta (“A change, perhaps”). Recover Braithwaite and did not cite Rafinha, a sign that it is transferable in these last days of the market. In Vigo he will meet again with Óscar García, with whom he coincided as a player at Johan Cruyff’s Barça. “It helped me a lot,” recalled the Catalan coach.

Celta has one victory at home and two draws away in the first three days, with absolute prominence for its star, Iago Aspas, author of the team’s three goals.