The image is fine, the volunteerism is sweet and tender, but in football as in life, what counts are the results, and although this team is better than previous seasons, it cannot be considered one of the greats until not only win games like tonight, but be able to have a more masculine reaction to adversity, instead of falling apart like a sugar cube at the first difficulty.
It was a match to be measured, to be confirmed, and Barça started nervous, losing silly balls. First Dembele’s, then Busquets, and Ter Stegen who, as always when he plays against Bayern, seemed to have something strange going on. Barca insecurity, typical of the child who wants to show off in front of the elders, and has studied for the event for a long time, but when it comes to the truth, stage fright gets the best of him. Nerves and precipitation in those of Xavi, more comfortable the Germans. It didn’t seem impossible that Barcelona would calm down and end up controlling the game a bit, but the opening minutes were clearly local with extremely high pressure and dizzying transitions from Davies. In any case Pedri He was the one who could score first but Neuer saved with a notable rebound. He very well the canary, elegant in all his interventions. Also brilliant Marcos Alonso, great defensive exercise in danger zones.
Barça was finding its spaces and Lewandowski He had it clearer than Pedri, and it’s not that finishing off was easy, but it gave the feeling that the stadium weighed on him. Neuer stopped him with a good header, which had won the far post. The image offered by the team was the opposite of that of previous seasons. The severe humiliations suffered, and deserved, had been left behind. Little by little he grew, imposing his game, and creating more chances than the rival. The insecure child at first became an adult and presented his credentials.
Bayern generated little and was diffuse, and when Barça started to put pressure on them, they had a hard time getting out. In the 26th minute, Xavi’s men had finished off seven times and the Germans only once. But every once in a while a quick move made it clear that dismissing the home threat was foolhardy. High-level match, intelligent, fast, with collective and individual talent, with Mark Alonso getting bigger on every play and with Lewandowski trying to overcome nostalgia. It’s not that he played badly: he left high-quality details, but he missed a couple of shots that we were used to always going in with him.
Dembélé lost more than he created, Busquets was finer -curious- in duels than with the ball. Koundé, very concentrated, only made good decisions. Both teams wanted to play, very few fouls. Pedri was superb. debut of Raphinha in the Champions: improvable. He and Dembélé were the weakest: between the two they lost 12 of the 18 balls that the team lost during the first half. That Barça was in a position to win was a victory in itself. It was more than confirmed that any rival can be measured. It remained to demonstrate that he was capable of concretizing a superiority that, if only produced on a theoretical level, is useless. The referee -and the VAR- forgave Bayern a very clear penalty, from Davies on Dembélé. It seems like the typical Catalan/culé victimhood, but believe me this time it wasn’t a comedy. Xavi’s justified anger.
Barça went into the break with the feeling of having been better. Pedri’s thing is so extraordinary that it has to be said twice. The pessimism of the day of the draw had turned into confidence, although without marking all this rhetoric of the return could be used the other way around, as a derision. Coming out of a corner, Lucas Hernández scored the first. The only mistake made by Marcos Alonso, who missed the mark, was paid dearly by his team.
It was not a dramatic defeat, which belied the improvement of the first half, but it showed a candor, a lack of maturity that is normal, and to a certain extent inevitable, in teams that show ways but have yet to be done. Barça was touched and Sané scored the second. The rhetoric of the superiority of the first half, effectively became a mockery. This team is used to resolve minor matches in Spain but Europe is too big for them. Bayern’s past goals were closer than the supposed return of Barça to the first level of world football. At the end of the day with Koeman we also beat Cádiz.
I was going to erase the euphoric comments from the first half but it seemed fair and necessary to leave them. Necessary because it is important to flee from provincial rejoicings, which are those that celebrate victories that have not taken place. And precisely because I was the first to commit them, a bit like the poor woman who presides over the ANC and who, because 100,000 people attended the Diada demonstration, has asked the president of the Generalitat to re-proclaim independence during the second half of 2023.
