Barça refuses to throw in the towel

Barcelona placed themselves, as if they didn’t want it, provisional second place in LaLiga after completing their most reliable match at home in a long time and erasing Getafe from the field with a 4-0 overwhelming. Xavi said in the preview that the Blaugrana team was not throwing in the towel and his boys responded with a solid victory in which new pieces appeared on the Terrassa coach’s board. Cubarsí, Raphinha, João Félix and Fermín were the protagonists of a match that gives the Catalans a week of peace of mind in the face of what lies ahead.

Xavi Hernandez He thought more about his legs than about the cards (he had four players facing suspension for the game against Athletic Club next Sunday) when making the lineup. The technician arranged the same team as in Naples with three changes: introduced Raphinha for The mine overexploited (and more so at his age) to John Felix for Pedri that ends the games by throwing the slap now Cubarsi by Íñigowhich is still in the process of returning.

All three decisions seemed correct. João Félix and Raphinha understood what the game was about right away and they got tired from the beginning of looking for space thanks to the passes filtered by a Koundé who seems to have overcome his gambling crisis and a Cubarsi who plays with an authority inappropriate for his age. Clearly, the 17-year-old is Barça’s best defender.

From the beginning, Raphinha was the best attacking argument for a Barça team that did not allow itself to be overwhelmed by the pressure of the team. Bordalás. Ter Stegen He had no problem taking the ball long when necessary to look for his forwards in space and give up coming out from behind with the ball under control.

In one of these plays, started by Koundé and not by the goalkeeper, the Brazilian winger faced Soria and scored the first goal of the game 20 minutes into the game. Clinging to this simple, but effective technique, Barcelona had opportunities to leave the match ready for judgment before the first half ended.

An occasion of John Felix and two of Raphinhathe second one on the verge of signaling the end of the first half was a judgment call because in a clear two against one against the rival goalkeeper he made a regrettable pass.

It seemed that the scenario from Naples last Wednesday was repeated in Montjuïc. Barcelona dominated the first half from start to finish, even having the option of archiving the match, but only went into halftime with a 1-0 lead. The Blaugrana ghosts could reappear at any time. The blaugrana’s worst fears were realized when, five minutes after the restart, Luis Milla from afar he shot at the stick before the gentleness of Ter Stegen, who came just in time to touch the ball in a sin of trust.

The Barcelona recovered from the shock of his best player, Cubarsí, who played a splendid ball for Raphinha to set up a surprising Christensen, who occupied the right wing position to assist João Félix, who scored 2-0.

The second goal left Getafe touched and Lewandowski scored a third goal clearly offside. If nothing strange happened, the game seemed controlled for Xavi’s team and it was confirmed shortly after when Raphinha again assisted De Jong so that the Dutchman scored 3-0. Montjuïc was finally experiencing a quiet afternoon.

Something that Xavi took advantage of to think about the future. He removed Christensen and Raphinha to bring on Oriol Romeu and Vitor Roque, who had time to score his second goal for Barcelona, ​​but his shot was denied by Soria and Fermín sent it into the net, completing a rout that places the Barcelona fans one point above Girona and five points above Madrid. Barça refuses to throw in the towel.