Every Manchester child dreams of playing in this theatre,” Bobby Charlton said in his retirement speech. The very special setting was Old Trafford, which will be 113 years old on Sunday. That mythical amphitheater will not see the two Barcelona children on Thursday whom the blaugrana trust to be the cornerstones of their project. Barça will have to go to Manchester to look for the ticket for the round of 16 without Pedri and Gavi, without his brain and without his soul, respectively. The 8 was injured in the first part. On the 30th – in Europe the bib number is kept until the end of the course – he will be sanctioned. The invention of the four midfielders will have to take a forced parenthesis.
It is hard to know what is more painful for Xavi’s Barcelona. If not being able to count on a Pedri touched by a wand within a week or having to do without Gavi’s intensity, capable of winning a jump over Weghorst, who measures 1.97 meters. The first is without doubt, the second is not afraid. Barça was left without them for a key duel in Europe.
The Andalusian and the Canarian scored two of the three goals in the Super Cup final. One is a genius, the other is a born professional and both are into big games. They are the two fixed interiors and the coach will be forced to travel without half of his ideal midfield. That is if Busquets recovers.
Pedri asked for the change. He said enough again muscularly. He was already injured last season against Bayern and Eintracht. He passed the ball, turned to the bench and announced that he had felt a puncture in the rectus femoris of the right thigh. He will be out for between 15 and 20 days and will miss United’s home leg and the first leg of the Cup semi-final against Madrid at the Bernabeu.
In 1992, Guillermo Amor missed the Wembley final due to a tactical foul. He did not hesitate to bring down Isaías, a Benfica striker, to prevent a breakthrough. At the same crossroads Gavi was seen when Fred left in a counterattack. And the boy made the same decision. He grabbed Fred by the shirt, knocked him down and cut the danger. Knowing that he was alert and what would happen: yellow card and the sign of Misses next match. But the kid, in the 71st minute, put his duty before his showing off, and that at 18 years old is not a sin of youth but a demonstration of maturity.
Gavi and Pedri will not be the only ones who will not live the dream. Nor will Dembélé be ready yet. For this reason, Barcelona will have to pull Raphinha, assistant in the 1-0 and author of the 2-2. The Brazilian, who had the 3-2 in his head, was very angry when he was substituted with 7 minutes to go. He came to the bench and kicked a fridge and Alba had to calm him down. “Rafa has come to me and has apologized”, revealed Xavi. “I told him to calm down. I was also angry. The screwed up is that he was satisfied with the change. I see it in a very positive way ”, reasoned the coach, who has a puzzle for the return.
