Barcelona embraces a new creed: win

• Direct, that's how we live it

In times of need, tradition and essence lose their importance. To avoid closing the season without great titles, something that has not happened since 2014 , when it only won the Spanish Super Cup , Quique Setién's Barça seems to have embraced a new creed: winning above all else . For this reason, it apparently did not matter to him that the possession and the initiative fell largely in the hands of Naples . What prevailed was to overcome it and get into the final phase in Lisbon . Something that he achieved through the goals of Lenglet, Messi and Luis Suárez . The Uruguayan scored after a penalty on the Argentine that caused cold sweats to more than one eInsigne , also from 11 meters, saved the honor of the visitors. Now, he is only three games away from lifting the much desired European Cup . The stubborn reality, however, suggests that it will be very difficult to achieve a happy outcome.

To Setién the pragmatism was stronger than the cruyffismo . Although he assured the day of his presentation that, if they won it, the young people would have their opportunities, both Riqui Puig and Ansu Fati started the game from the bench. The midfielder, who charmed Gattusso in a preseason duel between Barça and Milan a couple of years ago, was left with the desire to make his debut in Europe. The fact of having to face the always demanding scrutiny of the Camp Nou public, largely more than excited by these last two pearls of La Masia , could not be an excuse on this occasion. One can imagine that it was a matter of gallons, putting those who have been in the ranks of the first team the longest ahead, and leaving them the role of revulsive in case things go wrong. Or, in the best of cases, to give them input if things got too expensive. Something that, finally, did not happen. On the other hand, another young man made his debut, Monchu , also a midfielder, but with a different profile.

This commitment to pragmatism instead of Cruyffismo also had its extension in the team's game. As much as Setién assured in the previous one that he respects the DNA and the philosophy of Barça, possession , at the start, was for a Naples that very soon threatened to punish a Barça that seemed to benefit from not having the ball. Something that, for many Barcelona fans, is little less than a sacrilege. Mertens , when the first two minutes had not yet been played, crashed a ball into the frame of Ter Stegen's goal after taking advantage of a failure by Piqué. But soccer is capricious. Just when they least seemed to deserve it, the Catalans opened the scoring. Lenglet, after the referee and the VAR disregarded Demme's protests over an apparently clear push from the French, was responsible for scoring the 1-0 after a corner kick perfectly headed by the former Sevilla player with five minutes to go. the first quarter of an hour of the game is fulfilled.

The goal allowed Barça to play looser. More sure of your possibilities. And Messi, in an action loaded with equal parts of talent and honor, managed to take the ball surrounded by defenders and, falling to the ground, send it out of Ospina's reach and thus achieve 2-0. Little more than 20 minutes had been played and the Catalans were comfortable on the scoreboard. And more comfortable they could have gone to rest if the VAR had not annulled the 3-0 to the Argentine, after his initial control with the chest touched lightly in the hand. With the new rules released in this restart of the Champions League, which only allow contact with the ball with the highest part of the arm, which would be the shoulder area, there was not much to object, however subtle that contact was. Neither did Napoli have much to object after a penalty was awarded for a Koulibaly blow to Messi himself when the Barça captain tried to steal the ball. Çakir , at the request of the VAR and after consulting the images, granted the maximum penalty. Luis Suárez, with his good friend still in pain, transformed him. What could have been the sentence at 3-0, instead, was succeeded by a penalty as clear as it was absurd by Rakitic on Mertens that Insigne converted into 3-1 just before the break.

Forced by circumstances, Napoli started the second half with the same initial attitude. For Barça, much more than in the early stages, it was enough to see them come and look for the counter, no matter how much that attitude entails great risks. The Italians had options to score and put fear in the body of the Barça team, more pending to defend themselves with order than to threaten Ospina's goal again. The idea was more to have the ball away from one's own than to look for the fourth, as much as it would have been more than welcome to have arrived. On the other hand, what could have been 3-2 arrived, finally invalidated by an offside of a Milik who forced the local defense to do overtime, but who failed to give Naples at least one goal that, given what seen, it would have been more than deserved.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• Quique Setién
• Luis Suarez
• Spain Supercup
• Europe
• Ansu Fati
• sports
• soccer
• Champions League
• Leo Messi

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