The keys to Pochettino: intensity, good vibes and a 'Committee of wise men'
Round of 16 Program and results
Soccer is beautiful because it is absurd.
It is in its incongruity, in its madness, where the feeling of belonging really is born.
A handful of days ago, Barcelona was just that wreck unaccustomed to ridicule by its old regime and condemned to walk its shame wherever it went.
At the Camp Nou against
Kylian Mbappé
(1-4) or on his visits to the circles of continental hell (Turin, Rome, Liverpool or Lisbon).
But this team, already with the Kennedian smile of
Joan Laporta
in the box, a new dawn has been proposed.
He did not make the comeback in Paris.
Perhaps the dream would end in the same contradiction as Messi, who went from scoring one of the best goals of his career to missing a penalty that would have pushed PSG to the limit of sanity.
But the night should not be one of miracles or obscene results, but rather of the final goodbye to embarrassment.
It was a funeral with honors.
[Narration and statistics (1-1)]
Barcelona, after 14 years, will not play in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
The punishment might be impossible to circumvent given what happened at the Camp Nou.
And the evidence that historic nights like 6-1 in front of Parisians are unusual became even clearer after attending the first act of the Parc des Princes.
Because the Catalans, at least in that initial act, played much better than on the day of that comeback.
Although with a deficit impossible to ignore in games without return, the lack of effectiveness.
Those of
Ronald Koeman
finished
13 times.
Keylor Navas
, faithful to that European nirvana that they knew so well at Real Madrid, stopped the unspeakable and even towed two balls to the crossbar.
The first propelled by
Sergiño Dest
, the second that
Leo Messi's
penalty shot
just before the break that would have meant 1-2, with the visitors two goals from extra time.
The emotional slab, inaugurated by a habitual suspect like
Clement Lenglet
, already determined the night.
Incomprehensible stomp
But let's go back to the beginning.
To what was plotted by Koeman, a 3-4-2-1, with
Frenkie de Jong
as central, and
Antoine Griezmann
and Messi behind a
referential
Ousmane Dembélé
.
Mauricio Pochettino
only found a way to withstand the harassment to which he was subjected.
There was not much of a secret.
Everything happened through the rear pitch so that Mbappé attacked the spaces left by the Barça defensive line.
The French forward would not even need to approach the sublime version of the first leg at the Camp Nou to condition Barcelona in a bad way.
In fact,
Óscar Mingueza
played with fire by threading a grab and a kick from behind to Mbappé in less than a minute.
English referee
Anthony Taylor
only showed him the first yellow, but Koeman rushed his center back out of the field for
Junior Firpo to
enter
.
The martyrdom of the centrals was completed by Lenglet, responsible for an incomprehensible penalty when he stepped on
Mauro Icardi
, without the striker having any option of reaching the ball.
The VAR confirmed this, and Mbappé advanced to PSG.
Messi and Mbappé, during Wednesday's game in Paris.FRANCK FIFEAFP
Barcelona still stirred to the beat of Dembélé's tame shots.
Messi decided not to be Messi.
He abandoned the sweetness of the touch and left his life in a shot turned by the instep into a shell.
Although his fortune was not continued.
Layvin Kurzawa
committed a penalty on Griezmann, although the referee left the second yellow in a safe place.
But Messi was assaulted by old demons, all of them gathered on Keylor's legs.
The VAR did not notice, however, the incorrect position of
Marco Verratti
, who ran to punt from the crescent of the area.
Messi's dejected gesture would no longer change.
"I am sure that man will never renounce true suffering, that is destruction and chaos," believed
Feodor Dostoyevsky
from underground.
Messi, like
Cristiano Ronaldo
, cannot renounce something so intrinsic to our existence.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
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