Neither Super Cup, nor Cup nor League. If the championship was difficult, it has become impossible and unthinkable for Barcelona, ??which in an incomprehensible way has collapsed. Three almost consecutive blows that have cost three titles in two weeks leave Xavi’s team on the brink of the abyss. He is so knocked out and lost that he even gives away the goals wrapped in cellophane to his rival. Without a soul, without leaders, supported by youth, he will have to recover as soon as possible to fight to enter the Champions League since he is in free fall.
The slap of reality is so hard that Barça had not conceded five goals at home for thirty years. Montjuïc, which had not seen football for 38 days, whistled several times at its players.
Since the warm-up, spirits were low. The departure of the Barcelona players to the pitch came just after Madrid’s 2-1 draw in Las Palmas. And Barça seemed to make a terrible mistake in that second consecutive comeback, as it gave the impression that they thought it was no longer worth fighting to compete in the League. Only Lamine Yamal put the necessary nerve. He played Xavi’s team listlessly as if there were a couple of weeks left to finish the course and no more than four months to try to turn the situation around.
The youth player, at only 16 years old, already stood out at Villamarín and was the best at San Mamés. He is sweet, perhaps the only Barcelona player who is above what was expected. For the third consecutive game, all three as a starter, the winger did tricks with dribbles on the right and carried all the danger. It is already the recurring solution in the team as it was in Dembélé’s bad moments and in Messi’s good moments. But he was totally alone. It was him against the yellow defense.
In a forward with a scorer who has two Golden Boots in his history and with another star for whom, in his day, more than 120 million were paid, everything depends on a child. Neither Lewandowski, far removed from his intimidation, nor João Félix, pardoned after only starting in Barbastro and Salamanca, were up to par.
The two titles lost in the last two weeks weighed on Barcelona’s soul. And two or three basic moves were enough for Villarreal to hurt a depressed team. The body of the strong Sorloth, the wriggling of Ilias on the right and the sense of smell of Gerard Moreno were indecipherable enigmas for a sad and soft defense. The one who suffers the most is Iñaki Peña who saw how Baena and Gerard Moreno marked him in two plays canceled for offside. Until Villarreal’s third did get on the scoreboard. With astonishing ease Sorloth received a throw-in and turned in front of Oriol Romeu. The Norwegian centered in the heart of the area, a space that Gerard Moreno knows like no one else because he was a ball boy in this stadium in the Espanyol youth team. And even more so if Christensen gives him two meters. The Catalan finished off first to make it 0-1
The whistles at half-time had an immediate effect because Although the one who really connected and made Barcelona react was Ferran Torres.
The Valencian striker entered almost in desperation after Villarreal scored the second in a glaring error by Cancelo that left Ilias against Peña. The former Masia player, who made his debut with Xavi, dribbled and scored into an empty goal and did not celebrate out of respect.
The Blaugrana, capable of the worst and the best, this time they did show their self-esteem and turned towards Jörgensen’s goal. The spirit of Ferran Torres, which was already basic at Villamarín, can do anything. And in 11 minutes Barcelona lifted the game, without the need for the VAR to intervene in a penalty that Lamine Yamal requested. Gündogan placed the ball close to the post to lay the first stone, then it was Pedri who equalized with his left foot and finally a lateral foul by Gündogan was headed by Araújo and ended up going into Bailly’s goal.
Barça had done the most difficult thing and even Vitor Roque was able to score the fourth on a counterattack. Everything seemed on track after the local outburst but then Xavi’s team once again seemed fragile, with a glass chin. In a loss in a rival field, they set up a textbook counter between Morales, Sorloth and Guedes, which the Portuguese winger, substitute for Ilias, transformed.
Barça’s reaction ended when the VAR annulled the penalty that the referee had awarded for some hands by Comesaña. Later, with nerves on edge, Marcelino’s Villarreal took advantage of the confusion experienced by their rival. A ridiculous chain of errors in the area gave Sorloth 3-4 on a plate while Morales made the hemorrhage even greater in a painful finale for Barcelona, ??which is experiencing a slow agony in its descent into hell.
Barcelona: Iñaki Peña, Koundé, Araújo, Christensen (Cubarsí 46), Héctor Fort (Cancelo 46), Oriol Romeu (Pedri 46), De Jong, Gündogan, Lamine Yamal, João Félix (Ferran Torres 58) and Lewandowski (Vitor Roque 77 ).
Coach: Xavi Hernández
Villarreal: Jörgensen, Kiko Femenía (Mosquera 78), Bailly, Cuenca, A. Moreno (Mandi 71), Comesaña, Coquelin, Ilias Akomach (Guedes 58), Baena (Capoue 71), Gerard Moreno (Morales 78) and Sorloth.
Coach: Marcelino García Toral
Stadium: Lluís Companys (46,229 spectators)
Referee: Munuera Montero (c. Andalusian).
Yellow: Baena, Marcelino, Xavi, Romeu, Bailly, Lewandowski, Mosquera, Araújo and Cuenca.
Goals: 0-1 Gerard Moreno (42), 0-2 Ilias (54), 1-2 Gündogan (60), 2-2 Pedri (68), 3-2 Bailly (p.p) (71), 3-3 Guedes (84), 3-4 Sorloth (99), 3-5 Morales (102).
