Merci “Lewy“! Thanks to his savior Robert Lewandowskiscorer in added time (90th + 3), FC Barcelona snatched an unexpected 1-0 victory at Valencia on Saturday during the 12th day of La Liga, while Atlético Madrid were surprised 3-2 on the wire at Cadiz.
Three days after the 3-0 slap received against Bayern Munich and the elimination of the C1 suffered at Camp Nou, Barça was still numb in Valencia, but finally managed to win the three points thanks to a providential goal from their goleador Polish, at the conclusion of a nice center of Raphinha.
The scenes of joy seen on the Blaugrana side at the final whistle say a lot about the survivor that is Barça, author of a messy match and poor in chances… and contrast with the hard knocks received during the match.
After the release ofEdinson Cavani from the 18th minute (visibly hit in the right ankle) on the Valencian side, the Catalans lost Eric Garcia just before the break, who gave way to Marcos Alonso (42nd)… and when he returned from the locker room, it was the international defender Jules Kounde who asked for the change (73rd), after sitting for several minutes on the Mestalla lawn holding the back of his left thigh.
An outing that triggered all the alarms in Catalonia and within the France team, already decimated by injuries (Lucas Hernandez, Raphaël Varane, Paul Pogba…) three weeks before the World Cup in Qatar (November 20 – 18 december).
This is not the first time that Koundé has suffered a muscular injury to his left thigh this season: on September 22, he had to give up his place in the first period against Austria with the Blues (2-0).
After the encounter, Xavi, his coach at Barca, without specifying, wanted to play down the seriousness of the Frenchman’s injury: “Looks like it’s not an injury, it’s a big pain. We hope it’s not an injury“, he wished.
Despite these big downsides, Barça managed to snatch victory and temporarily took the lead in goal average ahead of Real Madrid (31 points), which receives Girona on Sunday (4:15 p.m.).
