A final trailer. Jordi Alba gasped, for lack of passing lines, every time he had to serve as a winger. Messi, a starter despite the inconvenience, appeared very little. Pedri, surrounded by opponents whenever he received, was not right either. In two weeks in Bilbao, Marcelino has made Athletic an uncomfortable team. With a couple of clear ideas, and after beating Real Madrid in the semifinals of the Super Cup, the Asturian coach won the tactical battle against Koeman, who did not do too much to prevent his Barça from waiting at home less talented rival. What exactly did Barça play in the first final they played in a year and a half? To survive? Victory would not have justified such a poor proposal. Defeat, he portrayed it.
Frustrated turning point. Granted, the Spanish Super Cup does not have the glamor of the Champions League, but it is impossible not to see in the defeat of Barça in Seville (from Duckadam, a city of lost finals) features that evoke the triad of European defeats (Rome , Liverpool, Lisbon) of the last courses. Against Athletic, Barça made children’s mistakes on set pieces, just like at Anfield or Olimpico. They also suffered the effects of a physical inferiority and a lack of plan more typical of the times of Setión than of the Koeman era. Messi, present in the three painful precedents, also found no holes. After Villalibre’s goal to go into extra time, the 10 not only did not gather his teammates to try to lift their spirits, but ended up expelled, a victim of the purest impotence. I had never seen a red one. He has noses that the first one has arrived in what could be his last final as a culer …
The best center of the staff. To draw some positive conclusions, Araujo’s performance minimizes Barça’s penalty for not being able to advance Eric García’s arrival in the winter market. When Piqué was seriously injured, the arrival of the Martorell center-back became even more necessary, but the Uruguayan’s step forward has reduced the drama. Araujo is taking advantage of the opportunity to the point that right now he is and not Lenglet the benchmark of the team. Imperial in aerial play and correction, he only has to improve – in relation to his teammate on the axis – in the ball output, an art that develops over time. It is no coincidence that in less than a year it has quadrupled its market value. However, he will not be able to sustain the entire defensive line.
Antoine’s empty hands. Griezmann cost more than $ 120 million to decide major matches. And he was on the verge, despite the poor collective performance, of justifying part of the effort in the Super Cup. If the day of the Real Sociedad, with Messi injured, provided assistance for De Jong, in the final against Athletic, with the 10 on the pitch, he scored two goals as a professional finisher. Too bad they were useless. Williams, with a goal in overtime, erased his smile suddenly. Pay attention, by the way, to the Basque’s career against Barça. Last year he was the executioner of the elimination of the Catalans in the Cup. And this year he has raised the bar to give his club the second title in six years.
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