Barça played a decent match in Naples. They started with claims of being a superior team and corroborated them for a long time with solidity and defensive commitment, with a remarkable command of the game and with a series of scoring chances of which only one scored. The rival, for its part, took advantage of a defensive mistake to tie and the subsequent roar of its people to press, but it barely really did so, and the one who was able to win was Barça thanks to a late chance by Gündogan.
Barcelona did not play the game of their lives, but they tied 1-1 in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 against an opponent whose level corresponds to the current phase of the journey. We are in February and not April. Arsenal lost in Porto; Bayern, in the field of Lazio; and there were draws for Dortmund in Eindhoven, as well as victories for City in Copenhagen and Madrid in Leipzig. Normal. This is the relationship of the facts, subjective although with a desire for a certain asepsis. There are no signs of triumphalism in it nor the traditional anticipatory defeatism. It is an analysis of the immediate past, of yesterday.
We specialists (everyone who does what they want) could flagellate ourselves daily with what could have been and was not, but it has already been said and published repeatedly. The current board managed Leo Messi’s renewal in reverse, a historic mistake whose consequences, especially economic, are incalculable, and squandered tens of millions in wrong bets to compensate for the void left by the Argentine, an emotional blow for the Barcelona tribe. The status lost in Europe by previous managers who were equally or more clumsy cannot be recovered without differential players. The mistake has been repeated, and although the team has the potential to not make a fool of themselves against Villarreal or Granada (and it was done), it does not have the potential to win in Naples without getting off the bus. That could be done with Guardiola on the bench and Messi and one of the best teams in the history of football around him. Or with Neymar, Messi (always the Argentine) and Suárez a bunch of years ago. Today’s Barça plays with Christensen as a midfielder because the temptation of the Brazilian market, regardless of the president, is more seductive than the siren song of the Odyssey. There is only one Ulysses, and he is not the general director.
The first team therefore has its limitations and must be subjected to the criticism it deserves. But it is more realistic to exercise it at medium height, respecting Naples and not belittling them from a haughty perspective even if they are ninth in their league, and not from old watchtowers built from nostalgic brick with a flight that is unattainable today. If the focus is broadened, everything is daily crises and the absence of a strategy from an amateurish and incapable club to avoid or minimize them. Frenkie de Jong shooting at will within hours of the most important match of the season and Rafa Márquez leaving the image of the institution behind by promoting betting houses are the protagonists of the latest installment. But if we limit everything to the Naples match, the image was presentable in line with the current squad and the first leg of the Champions League round of 16. Today’s photograph comes out like this. And tomorrow will be another day.
