Round of 16 Program and results
The Barcelona of Rome.
The one in Liverpol.
The one in Lisbon.
And now also the one who faced
Kylian Mbappé's
PSG
.
"The more infamous life is, the more man clings to it."
Balzac's
sentence
continues to mark the future of a club destroyed by its previous managers, still without a president, and with a team condemned to live badly in Europe.
A scenario in which no one can hide their shame.
[Narration and statistics (1-4)]
Mbappé, on his first visit to the Camp Nou, showed that he could only be enough to destroy the Catalans.
That he would not need the help of
Neymar
to leave Barça on the brink of elimination.
That nothing would intimidate him the spectral presence of
Leo Messi
.
Mbappé scored three goals, shattered his rival as many times as he wanted, and signed one of those masterpieces that mark forever.
The fanfare of the Champions League tends to provoke decisions to the limit of sanity.
Reckless even.
He wore
Gerard Pique
nearly three months without playing a game and that made some foxes right knee should not be ready until March.
At least that's what the doctors believed.
But Piqué never liked the imposition of any rule.
He was involved in recovery and promoted his return.
Not to make a big difference in the locker room, but to lead the team's suspicious defensive network against one of the best attackers on the planet: Mbappé.
Dancing in the area
But even Piqué's impetus to support the beardless French totem could not be enough.
Mbappé was not going to need the escort of the injured Neymar and
Di María
to open the channel to Barcelona.
Koeman
believed
that a good solution would be to lay hands on
Sergiño Dest's
right-
back
, as fast as he is innocent.
So Mbappé had only to move away from the lime to disconcert Dest, to intimidate both Piqué and
Lenglet
, and thus allow
Verratti to
think and
Kurzawa to
take as many times as he wanted the shore.
It was evident that
Dembélé was
not going to chase his pair.
This is precisely how Mbappé's first goal was born.
Verratti, a misunderstood genius, an excellent footballer but who was always penalized by the European curse of his team, tore apart the defense of Barcelona by sending the ball to Mbappé with a simple caress to the ball.
And Bondy's striker, a neighborhood hero, just had to start dancing in the area.
He knocked
Lenglet down
.
He outlined a body that is not only that of a sprinter, it is also that of an artist, and took out a hammer that he kept in his left boot.
Ter Stegen
was petrified.
The initial advantage had lasted only four minutes for Barcelona.
It was not surprising.
PSG had been far superior since dawn, no matter how much the Catalans managed to advance on the scoreboard in a completely episodic action.
Messi, with that disturbing gesture of frustration that accompanied him on other continental nights, found a moment of lucidity in a long assist to
De Jong
.
The midfielder, who had won the race against Kurzawa, ended up on the ground in the area.
A direct free from Messi, against the PSG barrier.
Dutch referee
Björn Kuipers
swiftly signaled the penalty despite a first impression giving the impression that De Jong had stumbled alone.
The VAR, however, ended up ruling against PSG.
A contact of the side's knee with De Jong's leg finally cleared the penalty.
Justice in football is now delivered at the stroke of frame.
Messi did not waver from 11 meters.
But against Barcelona all those monsters that have been accompanying them during the last five years returned to parade.
Do you remember that action in the first leg of the 2018-19 season semifinals against Liverpool?
Dembélé then had a 4-0 in his boots that, who knows, might have prevented the subsequent debacle at Anfield.
History repeated itself at the Camp Nou.
Ter Stegen, sole support
Right after Messi opened the game, Dembélé found himself alone in front of
Keylor Navas
.
Kurzawa was on the floor and the forward had only to decide how to score and celebrate the 2-0.
But all the doubts in the world found refuge at the foot of Dembélé.
He shot so loose, so focused, that one could only wonder why in his day there were those who preferred his hiring to that of Mbappé.
A choice of those that change history.
Ter Stegen supported Barcelona as much as he could until Mbappé completed his task in the second act.
Another goal born from the
wing
, this time by
Florenzi's
, and a last parabolic hit seasoned another goal from
Kean
, whom no one scored in a lateral foul.
Not even
Griezmann
could take advantage of a slip by Navas to give some life back from Paris.
"But a wound / is also a place to live," wrote the poet
Joan Margarit
.
Blessed sage.
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Know more
sports
football
Champions League
FC Barcelona
Leo Messi
FútbolDi María: "There are many possibilities that Messi will come to PSG"
ChampionsThe great crossroads of Mbappé
Attempt to leave what the contract says about the controversial burofax that Messi sent this summer
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2021 business calendar
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