Barça today is a deranged and crazy team that wanders around the football fields without any plan or social reason since the fall of the old Camp Nou. There is nothing and no one recognizable in the Barcelona universe, much less the figure of Xavi himself announced at the end of the day that he would leave on June 30 to free Barcelona. Barça plays today against Barça. Theirs are hysterical matches, a carousel of emotions that do not allow pause or reflection, faithfully reflected in the movement of the scoreboard against Villarreal; 0-2, 3-2 and 3-5.
3
Iñaki Peña, A. Christensen (Pau Cubarsí, min. 45), Koundé, Ronald Araújo, Hector Fort (Cancelo, min. 45), Gündogan, Oriol Romeu (Pedri, min. 45), Frenkie De Jong, Lamine Yamal, João Félix (Ferrán Torres, min. 58) and Lewandowski (Vitor Roque, min. 77)
5
Jorgensen, Kiko Femenía (Yerson Mosquera, min. 77), Alberto Moreno (Mandi, min. 70), Eric Bailly, Jorge Cuenca, Álex Baena (Capoue, min. 70), Ilias Chakkour (Gonçalo Guedes, min. 58), Coquelin, Comesaña, Gerard Moreno (Morales, min. 77) and Sörloth
Goals 0-1 min. 41: Gerard Brown. 0-2 min. 54: Elias Chakkour. 1-2 min. 60: Gündogan. 2-2 min. 67: Peter. 3-2 min. 71: Eric Bailly (pp). 3-3 min. 84: Gonçalo Guedes. 3-4 min. 99: Sörloth. 3-5 min. 101: Morals.
Referee José Luis Munuera Montero
Yellow cards Álex Baena (min. 15), García Toral (min. 17), Oriol Romeu (min. 33), Eric Bailly (min. 67), Hernández Creus (min. 69), Yerson Mosquera (min. 88), Ronald Araújo (min. 89) and Jorge Cuenca (min. 94)
Marcelino’s team rode the wave of Barcelona’s madness with satisfaction. Nerves have led to a catalog of defeats that has left the Blaugrana out of the Cup, defeated in the Super Cup and 10 points behind Madrid in the League. There is no longer talk of the title but of achieving qualification for the Champions League. It was never known what the Blaugrana intended against Villarreal, neither at the beginning nor at the end, in a match between two teams without defense, always ready to exchange goals in Montjuïc. There was no real match, but rather a back-and-forth without rhyme or reason that ended with a last ridiculous goal, worthy of Barça’s comic opera.
Xavi removed Pedri from the start and put Oriol Romeu on. The coach recovered the figure of the defensive midfielder and sacrificed his most creative interior to try to balance a team that splits easily and concedes more goals than ever – four at a time and now five – while keeping Héctor Fort because Balde It will be operated in Finland. The correction did not work and neither did João Félix wake up as Ferran’s replacement. Barça, intemperate, simply delayed the usual goal concession until the 41st minute on a cold Montjuïc.
Only Yamal offered himself until he was reduced with a double mark to relieve the Moreno winger. Villarreal, as decimated as it was saddened, indulged in a defensive and counterattacking exercise, typical of Marcelino. Although the ball was his, only João Félix was able to shoot and demand goalkeeper Jõrgensen. Villarreal, on the other hand, had already had two goals disallowed, the second by Gerard Moreno in an action invalidated by Sorloth, before they validated the 0-1 score.
The association of the forwards ended up working after an out of bounds, when the Norwegian protected the ball before enabling Moreno, simply floated by Christensen. The center backs were portrayed by Villarreal’s forwards. The Barcelona fans defended poorly and attacked even worse, unable to find the passing line, slow in getting the ball out and imprecise in their touch, increasingly timid and confused in the face of a well-off rival, with no pressure on the field or in the stands for the silence of the Olympian.
Only a few whistles sounded before reaching the break to reproach a blocked Barça and, therefore, inanimate and harmless, unplugged after their passage through San Mamés. Xavi then suddenly turned to Pedri, Cubarsí and Cancelo to gain individual talent in the absence of collective play and authority, subdued by Villarreal. Football had turned off in the Barça midfield while the forwards did not take risks and the defenders were repetitive in making mistakes, always out of sync and exposed to error, as seen in the 0-2 scoreline.
Cancelo botched a rejection and enabled Ilias’ run to score after getting around Peña. Jörgensen’s goal kick denounced Barça’s containment system. Xavi’s team did not react until Ferran Torres came out for João Felix and Gündogan appeared on the balcony of Jõrgensen’s area. The match took a turn with Ferran and the goals fell continuously and helter-skelter before the rejoicing of the fans until the score was 3-2.
Ferran’s aggressiveness, excellent in attacking spaces, was contagious and decisive for Barcelona’s comeback. Gündogan scored 1-2 after the ball hit Lewandowski’s spur. Also from the attack Pedri scored in an action led by Yamel and Baily, surrounded by Araujo, headed into his own goal a lateral free kick taken by Gündogan. The ball did not leave the Villarreal area.
To which they stopped attacking, now without the ball, however, Barça once again suffered a defensive panic attack, to the point of conceding three more goals, the last one especially crazy, culminating the disaster experienced in Montjuïc. The tie definitively knocked down Xavi’s team, which had no choice but to shout to the heavens for a penalty that Var took away due to a handball by Comesaña. The match no longer had a solution for the fragile Barça and became an attacking festival for Villarreal. The ending left Barcelona fans so stunned that Xavi announced that he will leave on June 30.