Yamal Nets Late Goal: Barça Draw in Bruges | Match Report

Barça saved a point this Tuesday in Bruges, and thanks. Hansi Flick’s team tied 3-3 in a match that they did not know how to govern and in which they were behind on the scoreboard on up to three occasions. The goals from Ferran, Lamine Yamal, who was the best, and Tzolis’ own goal do not cover up the shortcomings of a Barça that continues to concede too much and is far from being a solvent team.

And the start of the match began as an x-ray of all of Barça’s ills. Pedri and Raphinha were not there, but that does not explain the fragility of a team that did not know how to take control of the match and that entered into a bullfight that could only benefit Bruges. Each ball behind the Barça center backs was a one-on-one, a highway to Szczesny. Thus, it only took Tresoldi six minutes to give Flick the first upset after a clearance from Forbs and thus, Forbs himself scored the second after the quarter of an hour after a simple wall.

It was of little use that Ferran Torres scored a goal on the run in between. The reality is that Barça was, once again, overwhelmed. Flick’s men were not capable of putting pressure on the ball holder nor of adjusting an offside line that has gone from being a defensive solution to a problem. We had to wait for Bruges to slow down and give up meters for the Catalans to take the reins and get the Belgian team to run after the ball.

Once this objective was achieved, Barça had fluidity in the game and found Lamine Yamal in positions where he could face. From the 10th, very active, the culés improved and the chances fell in dribs and drabs. Koundé hit the crossbar and Ferran missed a one-on-one on the last chance of a first half in which Flick’s team went from less to more, but in which they paid dearly for defensive fragility at the beginning.

After the restart, Barça exercised patience. The culés advanced meters, found spaces between the lines and generated clear chances. Flick went one step further by bringing on Dani Olmo and Lewandowski. They were two offensive changes that coincided with a work of art by Lamine Yamal. On the 10th he regained his spark in Bruges and left a prodigious slalom that Fermín accompanied with a heel and that Lamine himself finished with the outside. A great goal that seemed to be the end of the culé ordeal.

It wasn’t like that. Barça has feet of clay. Once again Vanaken received between the lines, with time to raise his head and find Forbs, who was planted in the blink of an eye against Szczesny to make the third. Flick shook his head and Barça began a race against time in which Lamine was the leader. He was the best of the match and, as a reward for his insistence, the tie came after a lateral cross that Tzolis deflected against his own goal. Szczesny was still able to cause a bigger debacle after an action that ended in a foul against the Polish goalkeeper and Barça saved a point which, given what we have seen, is not small.