Barcelona 4 Copenhagen 1: Yamal Burns Bright as Barcelona Passes The Copenhagen Test
Mood Swing - Bad
Supporting Flick’s Barcelona has got to be on the list of 1000 ways to die. Truly. This team plays the kind of football that shreds your arteries into ribbons when it goes bad and fills you with overwhelming euphoria that could easily overpower your heart with too much excitement when its good. There is no middle ground, no ‘No Man’s Land’. This team is a team of ‘either - or’, not ‘and’. They are either really spectacular, dazzling, and mesmerizing, or absolutely hair-pullingly frustrating, shambolic, and catastrophic.
This team doesn’t do good or bad games. Oh no. What this team has is extreme mood swings, mood swings that could oscillate between both good and bad extremes in the same game, heck, even in the same minute. The only thing that this team does excellently and consistently is conceding goals.
This was a must-win game for Barcelona. A win here, by a two-goal margin or more, would have secured their place in the top eight, which means avoiding an extra round of fixtures.
And guess what these lot go ahead and do? Of course they concede first.
In a night when Culers filled the Camp Nou for as much as it could be filled in the midst of the renovation and were lively on a chilly and cloudy Barcelona night, Barcelona conspired to give up the first goal inside four minutes when 17-year-old Viktar Dadason was at hand to make Barcelona pay for sloppy play.
Kounde, who had a horror first half, played Eric Garcia, who also struggled into trouble with a pass that allowed Copenhagen to flow forward and open the scoring.
After that, it was all Barca attack, with Copenhagen threatening on the counter, but Barcelona did not look at all like they were creating much danger in that first half. Lamine Yamal, of course, was his usual self, in fact, more imperious, as he tried to take the match by his hands and bend it to his will.
It was a dire first half that I won’t wish to dwell on, so let’s move on to the second half, where the moods took an upswing.
Mood Swing - Good
Copenhagen continued to press forward with well-executed counterattacks in the second half, but with Marc Bernal replacing Eric Garcia in the defensive midfield role, Barcelona had much more steel in the center.
Still, though, Flick’s team lived dangerously. They can’t help themselves. They gave the ball away cheaply, leading to a Copenhagen chance that winger Larson fired over.
This was really a poor showing in front of a Camp Nou that continued buzzing, even though songs and chants of support were slowly getting drowned out by murmurs of frustration and finger-biting anxiety.
Of course, a loss here wouldn’t have been terrible. Barca were already assured passage to the knockouts. However, a victory here, especially combined with a bad result from any of the teams above Barcelona, would have seen Barcelona finish in the top eight and thus avoid two extra fixtures. So yes, there were stakes.
Yamal continues to show great determination, being one of only a handful of players to truly show grit and edginess, as everyone else appeared to lack direction.
But Barcelona would equalize in the 48th minute when Olmo, who had his frustrating moments in this match and also throughout his Barcelona career, split the haphazard Copenhagen mid-block set-up with an obnoxiously sexy through pass out wide for Yamal to race onto. Yamal got to the ball, raced into the penalty box with determination, drawing the Copenhagen keeper, Kotarski, towards him, before then sliding a ball across to an onrushing Lewandowski, who fired one into the roof of the net. 1-1!
Yet despite this, it was Joan Garcia who would be forced into a save next when he smothered a Dadason one-on-one after Copenhagen had worked the ball excellently out wide and played through Barcelona’s hands-free defending. It was a spectacular save for a player who would end up being offside anyway, but it was a portentous sigh for Barcelona.
Lamine Yamal, who had continued toying with the Copenhagen defenders, would then play a hand in Barcelona’s second when his shot-cum-cross, took a heavy deflection off a Copenhagen player and looped over the keeper into the back of the net. 2-1 and it was thoroughly deserved, but would this topsy-turvy team hold out the lead or even score a third?
Well, with the Camp Nou stands now pulsing with the collective euphoria of the Barca faithful, they needed to, they needed to find a way to repay the relentless support of the home fans on what had been, up until Yamal’s goal, a torrid evening on this chilly, cloudy Barcelona night.
The stadium was buzzing, not exactly with cheers, but with murmurs. It was obvious that there was still some tension, some anxiety amongst the Catalan faithful, and this anxiety certainly would not have been eased as Copenhagen continued to look dangerous in the counters.
And Barca did play excellently and tried to create. One chance saw Martin break the lines with a pass to Raphinha, whose back heel found Olmo with space to race into the box, but Olmo decided to be frustrating in this instance, taking too long and getting dispossessed before he could decide whether to shoot or square.
Yamal was at hand again to create the chance that led to the third goal when his floated ball into the area landed perfectly on Lewy’s chest. However, the Polish international was clipped from behind and thus, resulted in a penalty, which, to me, was rather soft.
Still, Raphinha stepped up, and though Kotarski guessed the right way, the Brazillian hid the ball well enough for it to sneak past his outstretched arms and into the back of the net. 3-1!
That goal eased the Camp Nou crowd, and the songs and chants that had been drowned out by the loud murmurs of frustrations and anxiety now rose louder once again.
After that, Barcelona started knocking the ball around, playing keepaway with the Copenhagen players.
Marc Bernal, who came for Eric Garcia, outside of a misplaced simple pass, was excellent. His long limbs ensured that Barcelona always won the ball in the center of the pitch, providing that much-needed screen in front of the papier-mâché defense behind him.
Balde was also excellent; his unstoppable drives into the final third always served as a pressure-release valve whenever Barcelona were being choked by a surprisingly effective Copenhagen press. The Danish side continued to look dangerous but were unable to create much of note.
Rashford would add gloss to the scoreline when he snuck a free kick into the nearpost for 4-1. Yes, you read that right. Barcelona, through Rashford, scored a free kick for the first time in I don’t know how long. It has been years since one of those went in at Barca, so yet another story for the night, eh?
It was an unerring strike that the England international is capable of. His technical ability to strike the ball and keep it hit, is hard to compare.
Yamal then reduced the Copenhagen players into training cones and set up Rashford toward the end of the game, but his shot was deflected into the crossbar and out for a corner that would be the last kick of the game.
Following this win, Barcelona finishes the UEFA Champions League group phase in 5th place.
Oh, and remember when I said Barca needed a favor from any of the teams above them to secure a top 8 spot? Well, you would never guess where that favor came from. Of course, it was Barca’s age-old rivals, Real Madrid, who would graciously give up their place in the top for Barcelona.
The Blancos conspired to lose 4-2 to Benfica, which allowed Barcelona to climb to fifth, while Real Madrid slid down the rankings and finished the group phase in 9th, meaning they will have an extra two rounds of fixtures to contend with. Who knew that Real Madrid could be so generous?
Comments
Post a Comment