Viktoria Pilsen – Barça from Champions: chronicle, result and goals

Artists must have the ability to redo reality, to create. The team did not do it in Pilsen, who let themselves be carried away and did not rebel against the sad reality of being eliminated. The field, small, and the opponent, defensive, came to be like a joke in bad taste, as a way to get used to the Europa League. And, despite everything, Barça had enough with four strokes of joy to win. As if in a fit of sincerity he wanted to leave the Champions League through the back door, without making a sound. And see that Xavi had warned that there are no matches at Barça Fools. Every day it’s time to pass an exam. Life always tests us, indeed. Even when you don’t feel like it. And Xavi looked at it with a serious attitude, attentive to see if he detected laziness or indolence in any of the players. In attack, the trident with Ferran Torres of false nine, accompanied by Ansu and Raphinha, passed the test. Ferran with high marks, his most fair companions. Ansu didn’t quite have the day.

The defense, on the other hand, squeaked, with a lost Bellerin, a slow Piqué and a revolutionized Marcos Alonso who saw how Chory, as tall as Saint Pau, won the game for him. And see that the Madrid player made his debut as a goalscorer accompanying a play in which Ansu was one step away from scoring, with a shot that ended up accompanying the ex-Chelsea player to the back of the net. When Marcos and Jordi Alba went on excursions, they added up. When it was their turn to defend, they suffered. The double life of a Barça still under construction that now needs results to grow. The challenge is to reach the end of the World Cup having added two more victories. To face the future, to try to make the injury of the Champions League seem more distant than it is.

Iñaki Peña, a party with enough work

Barça’s start was successful. It didn’t last long, like a student who doesn’t concentrate, who trusts too much in his superiority and ends up with a straight pass. When Viktoria had already made a post and forced Iñaki to save two, Alba gave Ferran the 0-2. The Valencian needed it, after the mistake made in Mestalla a few days before. In fact, he added another goal in the second half, also when the Czechs were beating a bipolar Barça, who balanced enthusiasm and skepticism. A still fragile Barça, when it comes to applying his ideas. He explains them well, but when he executes them he still squeaks. It is an orchestra that is still out of tune. The Champions League, beyond the incomprehensible refereeing decisions and an unlucky draw, has put Barça in front of a mirror: it is still too early to fight a duel against giants. The reality is that you can win without losing your hair in Pilsen, to lick the wounds left by Bayern.

These final matches of the Champions League group stage, always strange, open the door to young faces. In Pilsen, Pablo Torre and Iñaki Peña were lucky under the posts. The goalkeeper of Alicante did it well enough, although he could not stop the penalty from the Czech goal in the second half, committed precisely by Pablo Torre. The ex-Racing player carries the reputation of having to be the new heir to the dynasty of great Blaugrana midfielders, as he thinks and understands the game. And he showed that he has a lot of future by scoring 2-4 with a big play in which he was injured. You don’t win by being upset, Xavi. Every game sees how injured players fall. If Torre’s case is not much, the more serious is the injury of a Kessie who never knew how to control the game in the middle of the field.

If the Czechs stayed alive with the crosses and long balls that Chory hunted, Barça had enough acceleration when they touched to bring down Viktoria’s defense. The scenario and the script did not help, especially when some players know that in a few weeks they have to play a World Cup. But in football it’s about living in the present. If you don’t do it on the pitch, just leave it scalded. Ferran understood this and made the game positive to find the goals he needed, Pablo Torre shouted for more minutes and Gavi must still be running, for Pilsen, facing rivals. Others looked sad, as if they couldn’t hide that they didn’t feel like being in Pilsen on a cold November night. And this duality between a Barça trapped by a future that is slowly arriving and a past that is not quite gone served for Viktoria to carry a bit of danger. They tried until the end, the Czechs. Barça only thought of closing this sad European journey, walking towards a future embodied by youngsters like Torre, Ansu and Gavi.