Barcelona Joy is entrusted. And Barça has been winning for a few weeks now, and it sends congratulations. The talent of its players is accompanied by a bit of luck, which is always necessary. Now it feels like the coin will always fall heads and that, if it were Christmas, the big one would hit inside the Barça dressing room. Without falling in love as they did in Paris, Xavi’s team took the three points from Cadiz thanks to a gift from João Félix in the form of a goal from the Chilean (0-1). Football is strange. It wasn’t long ago that this team was easily jammed and now it looks like it will win even when it’s not looking for it. In the League, Barça looks like an official; in Europe, an artist.
A bet that works for Xavi, for now. And look, it was risky, his line-up in the field of Cadiz, which gave rest to almost all the starters in Paris to face a rival with water up to his neck. To the already known losses of Lewandowski, Cancelo and Iñigo Martínez, the coach from Valais added a revolution in which he changed almost everything, with the exception of Ter Stegen and a Cubarsí who now always plays. In a few months he has gone from being the unknown son of a carpenter from Estanyol to being the fashionable defender of European football. And he remains the same, unchanged, focused on doing his job well. If Barça had punted, it would have felt like the Barça team resigned from the League and offered it to a Madrid that did not fail in Mallorca. But neither the rotations, nor the low pace nor the testimonial role of players who have disappeared a little prevented another triumph. The League remains complicated, but, just before visiting Madrid next Sunday, the victory in Cadiz allows us to still have hope. And more so now that this team wins when it deserves it and also when it doesn’t do anything out of the world, as happened for a large part of the game at Nuevo Mirandilla.
The magic of João Félix
In fact, the first part was quite drowsy. Cadiz tried to bite with an aggressive and vertical game, prioritizing not to get hurt. Barça didn’t seem in a hurry either. As if the players needed time to adjust to playing with this experimental lineup for the first time. The midfield, with Oriol Romeu, Fermín and Sergi Roberto, was mired in trench warfare against the opponents. Without Lewandowski, suspended, the logic said that Vitor Roque would finally play as a center forward. Said and done. The Brazilian, accompanied on the wings by Ferran Torres and João Félix, did what he could. At the moment he still looks like an exchange student who has not yet adapted to the new faculty. Ferran, still far from his best form, was a shadow.
And João Félix? He didn’t play a great game, but he won the week in a single action, the 0-1. Just when the game seemed more closed, without chances, rhythm or joy, he finished off a corner with a spectacular Chilean in which he demonstrated a great ability to coordinate: once he had already raised the flight they moved him, to annoy him. Even so they didn’t prevent him from scoring one of the goals of the season. A moment of beauty, a small work of art, a madness of a cursed player, of those who hide too often, as if they were angry with the world. A player who, when he wants, manages to be admired. Who hasn’t dreamed of scoring a goal like his? Few succeed. He is one of the chosen ones.
But the Portuguese prefers to play in Champions League matches and, against Cadiz, he simply lived off the proceeds of his goals in a second half in which Cadiz spooked from time to time, as in an offside goal by Juanmi. Xavi, holed up in a room at the top of the pitch as he is still suspended, ordered a triple change in time to stop any local attempts to fight back, calling Pedri, Koundé and Lamine Yamal into line. The heavyweights, even if one of them is a teenager, in order to close the file and move on.
Cadiz, however, were clinging to life like a shipwreck that does not want to sink, sending balls into the heart of the area, to see if they could force a penalty or a rebound. Not much, against this star-studded Barça. Luck may not exist and what the team is experiencing now is the result of good work, recovering the injured and the more relaxed atmosphere in the dressing room, now that Xavi has lifted the burden of announcing his future. As has already happened more than once in the League, without doing anything out of the world, Barça is still alive, as if it doesn’t want to hide from anyone that the competition in which it wants to blow the bank is the Champions League. Xavi wants to say goodbye through the big door at Wembley.
Cadiz: Ledesma, Carcelén, Ousou, Chust (Lucas Pires, 85′), Javi Hernández, Sobrino, Álex Fernández (Diadie Samassékou, 77′), Rubén Alcaraz, Robert Navarro (Darwin Machís, 77′), Chris Ramos (Maxi Gómez , 52′) and Juanmi (Roger Martí, 77′). FC Barcelona: Ter Stegen, Fort (Koundé, 61′), Cubarsí, Christensen (Pedri, 61′), Marcos Alonso, Sergi Roberto, Oriol Romeu, Fermín López (Raphinha, 79′), Ferran Torres, Vitor Roque (Lamine Yamal , 61′) and João Félix (Marc Casadó, 85′). Goals: 0-1 João Félix (37′) Referee: Juan Luis Pulido Santana (Canary). Yellow cards: Cubarsí (27′), Rubén Alcaraz (46′), Sergi Roberto (46′), Javi Hernández (63′), Ter Stegen (76′), Roger Martí (84′). Red cards: None. Stadium: Nuevo Mirandilla, 19,807 spectators.
2024-04-13 20:54:22
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