Barça-PSG (1-3): Bradley Barcola, delicious carefreeness

We almost ended up forgetting his madness, his sense of percussion, this dynamism and this carefreeness which does so much good in a diligent but sometimes too academic PSG. We’re exaggerating a little, but it’s been a month since Bradley Barcola didn’t start a match as a starter with the Parisian team, the fault of an injury to his left hamstring which had kept him sidelined. about twenty days.

But in the space of 90 minutes, this Tuesday, April 16 in the evening, the French Espoirs international came to remind us why and how he managed to find his place in this starting eleven, and took the place of two players recruited this summer at a high price – Randal Kolo Muani and Gonçalo Ramos – for a little over five months now.

A caviar for Dembélé…

Aligned in the left lane of the attack, while the small pre-match setup suggested that he would start on the other side, number 29 was the initiative in all the good moves, especially in the first period. It took a good dose of nerve and composure to prove to the whole of Europe that playing in a first quarter-final of the Champions League as a starter at the age of 21, for his second professional season, did not make him fear. He had already proven it during 45 minutes in the first leg, coming off the bench, he confirmed it from the start on Catalan soil.

From the start, it was he who placed the first banderillas, with small accelerations and well-adjusted drops for Vitinha (3rd) and Ruiz (10th). Not inhibited for a penny, Barcola continued to provoke in its left lane in the wake of Raphinha’s opening score and passed the second around the 25th, with a first cross for Kylian Mbappé, finally dangerous. The rise of Nuno Mendes, after a very poor start, coincided with his own and the connection between the two men was in full swing when the time came to put Paris back in the game.

Symbol of this understanding: this deep pass from the Portuguese to “Speedy” Barcola, who deposited Ronald Araujo a few meters. Overwhelmed, the Uruguayan defender, although so impeccable until now, was pushed into error and found himself obliged to grab the former Lyonnais at the entrance to the area. Logical sanction with a red card with serious consequences for the rest of the game.

…And a capital rescue in its area

Gradually, Barcola sowed here and there the promises of a classy performance which took on another dimension in the 40th minute when he came to offer a caviar from the left, his bad foot, for Ousmane Dembélé, author of equalization. A first decisive pass in the competition in the form of a logical reward while those around him push and encourage him to be a little more decisive in the last gesture.

A little more subdued in the second period, leaving the light to the scorers Vitinha, Mbappé, the player trained at OL was no less important when he distinguished himself in a totally different register by offering himself a decisive comeback in the feet of Ferran Torres in his own area. A precious, capital rescue concluding a performance which will count in the career of this carefree young man.