BarcelonaThese are the notes of Barça’s defeat in San Mamés (3-2) and the elimination of the only tournament that the Barça team defended this season.
Sense arguments. A questionable penalty by Jordi Alba ended Barça’s options in the Cup. The Hospitalet winger appeared in the photo of Athletic’s three goals. He has no natural substitute, the years weigh him down and he suffers in defense, especially with voracious and vital extremes like Nico Williams, who left him stuck in the first minutes of change. On the other hand, Dani Alves is not far behind. Xavi has changed his face at Barça, but he has no solid arguments to compete. As proof, two of his former teammates who are in their thirties and who, not happy with their suffering in defense, have to throw direct fouls on top.
A gem for Xavi. If the barbeque Gavi suffered the local intensity in Bilbao, Pedri, in his first title with Xavi, showed why he is indisputable with the absolute and why Bayern has come to look for him twice in a year and little . What a piece of midfielder Xavi has to explode! And how he missed the team during the months he was injured. The canary is pure silk, he understands the game and now, on top of that, he has gained a few kilos of muscle mass. With him, Nico González i Gavi and the undisputed Busquets, De Jong, a substitute in San Mamés, has a conflict of competence. Riqui Puig is not even mentioned.
Ferran’s first. Pedri was Barça’s best news in a game dominated from the start by Athletic. He acted as a beacon in the midst of the guerrilla warfare posed by the always unfriendly Marcellin and forced extra time with a target added. We’ve known for a long time that Pedri is a lover of extensions, but we haven’t seen him yet. And little pussy, because if you add new arrivals and recordings to his repertoire, he will be an even more complete player. Thanks to his appearance to make it 2-2, the goal of his friend Ferran Torres, who tied Muniain’s initial, was a few minutes longer.
Clean up to be a star. Pedri blamed the effort and called for the change as a precaution due to a problem with the twin. More serious seems the injury that motivated the replacement of Ansu when he carried little on the grass. The tears of the Hispanic Guinean are painful and, mixed with the veto on Dembélé, announce a dark future for Xavi. 11 months off, 4 interventions and a recovery from push-ups and rolls take their toll on Ansu’s body, decompensated and exposed to associated injuries until he stabilizes. The year is a transitional one for Barça, but especially for the 10th, which must be clean before it becomes the benchmark that everyone expects. More tests will be carried out this Friday, but the first exploration predicts that it will be two months further away from the playing fields. What a mess. Will Barça now be able to withstand the punishment of the Mosquito?
