This Thursday, Barça avoided a new disaster in the League at the buzzer. The team led by Xavi Hernández beat Las Palmas in stoppage time in a match in which he was on the ropes for many minutes after Munir put the hosts ahead, but in which he showed character to react after the break. The goals from Ferran Torres and Gündogan, from a penalty and in added time, allowed the culés to catch their breath and follow in the wake of Real Madrid and Girona.
New Year New Life. That’s what Xavi must have thought, but nothing could be further from the truth. Barça went out to the Gran Canaria Stadium with good ideas, but with the same fragility with which they left 2023. The Barça coach opted for the classic 4-3-3 with Cancelo on the right side, with Sergi Roberto in the midfield and with Ferran Torres in place of the punished Joao Félix. The Portuguese had to see from the bench how the good manners that his teammates showed at the beginning were diluted as the setbacks piled up. Cancelo left with a blow to his knee, Barça was not fine in the last pass and in a counterattack two ex-Azulgranas turned everything upside down. Sandro enabled Munir and the Moroccan avoided the hesitant start of Iñaki Peña to open the scoring in the early stages and sign a new beginning with curves for the culé team.
The Palms
Valles, Álex Suárez (Sinkgraven, min. 83), Coco, Mármol, Sergi Cardona, Perrone, Kirian, Javi Muñoz, Moleiro (Loiodice, min. 68), Sandro (Pejiño, min. 68) and Munir (Cardona, min. 59).
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Barcelona
Iñaki Peña, Cancelo (Christensen, 11th), Araujo, Koundé, Balde, Sergi Roberto (Fermin Lopez, 78th), Gündogan, Frenkie de Jong, Raphinha (Lamine Yamal, 72nd), Lewandowski (Joao Felix, (72 mins) and Ferran Torres (78 mins).
Goals: 1-0: min. 12, Munir. 1-1: min. 56, Ferran Torres. 1-2: min. 93, Gündogan, penalty kick.
Referee: Pablo González Fuertes (Asturian Committee). He cautioned Sergi Roberto, Xavi, Álex Suárez, Coco, Lamine Yamal, Javi Muñoz and Kirian. Expelled Sinkgraven, min. 91.
Incidents: Match played at the Gran Canaria Stadium before 31,712 spectators.
And from that moment Barça entered a state of panic. The blaugranas were incapable of having control of the clash against a rival who was not only a mirror, as García Pimienta promised, but also had plenty of arguments to propose a round trip to Xavi’s team. Barça tried to escape from that scenario by taking control of the midfield thanks to Frenkie de Jong and Gündogan, but they fell again and again into the rush of looking for balls behind the rival defense, which was very advanced. That trap was choked in the first half by a team, the Barça team, that did not have fluidity in the circulation or depth on the sides to disarm Las Palmas. The mess could have been even greater if Sandro had managed to beat Iñaki Peña in a one-on-one match or if Javi Muñoz had been more accurate in a shot from mid-distance that made Xavi’s face twist even more, resigned to seeing the zero shots on goal by his team on the way to the locker room.
After the restart, Barça took a step forward. The culés improved after Xavi’s more than likely chatter and finally managed to advance meters and force Las Palmas to delay the defense. It was there when the best version of the Blaugranas could be seen. Gündogan was able to appear between the lines, Raphinha had the opportunity to face him alongside him and little by little the chances arrived. The Brazilian, very active, shot wide and then Ferran Torres took advantage of a tumult in the area to tie the match. The former City man continues to hit Xavi’s door with goals and on this occasion he was the smartest after a series of rebounds, including a shot in the face of Lewandowski, to beat Álvaro Valles and bring some peace of mind to the team. Xavi.
Ferran’s goal spurred a Barça side that began to play downhill against the Las Palmas goal, which was feeling the minutes tick by and was much more withdrawn than in the first half. Xavi took advantage of the new context to shake the tree. The Catalan coach brought on Lamine Yamal, Joao Félix, Fermín López and Vitor Roque and removed Raphinha, Sergi Roberto, Ferran and Lewandowski, the entire clash going unnoticed. The changes refreshed the team, which reached the final stretch much stronger and found the prize in the extension with a penalty on Gündogan that the German himself converted to avoid a new fire in Barcelona.
2024-01-04 23:00:46
#Barça #avoids #fire #horn
