Transfers Koundé, on the edge of the knife
Narration This is how we live the game
First The classification
We try so hard to understand a sport as incomprehensible as soccer that, sometimes, we are unable to notice the simplest thing.
It is the special footballers who twist and determine the nights that seemed lost.
Ansu appeared against Real Sociedad 25 minutes from the end, with 1-1 on the scoreboard and with Barcelona disoriented at Anoeta.
Suddenly, everything fell into place.
On ten he took out his heel so that Dembélé, exasperating until then, advanced to his team.
The boy re-emerged to continue Pedri's genius that Lewandowski converted into the second goal of his account.
Ansu, still dissatisfied and aware of his gift, concluded by scoring 1-4 after a touch of the Pole's spur.
Suddenly, everything fell into place.
None of the four Barcelona captains started at Anoeta because the past oppressed the present.
Busquets, agreed, was sanctioned and in the absence of a natural substitute there was no other choice but to change the system and draw a square.
But Jordi Alba was condemned by Xavi Hernández to the bench in one of those decisions that embitter the footballer and mean the coach.
Even without Marcos Alonso having arrived, the coach preferred the young Balde.
Piqué, meanwhile, has gone from master of ceremonies to stranger on the bench.
While Sergi Roberto is nothing more than a patch.
Anoeta is a place where Barcelona fans have raised emotional boundaries.
Posts to look for starting points on the road to decrepitude, few like the territory of San Sebastian.
It was there, in 2015, where Luis Enrique decided to sit down Messi and Neymar.
The team then lost with an own goal by Alba and the marimorena was armed.
Luis Enrique got the message and managed to win the summit in the Champions League final in Berlin.
Although rarely such a coronation had such a devastating effect on a club.
Bartomeu won the elections between stammers and the same smile that the neighbor offers you in the elevator - "we have a triplet, we have a trident" -, he tried to win the favor of a dressing room that mocked him with renewal and salary increases, and led the entity to an economic crisis,
Because this Barcelona that Joan Laporta now governs with one hand on the lever and the other on the stopwatch cavorts without shame in the urgency.
So much so that, on this second day, he still could not register who should be the foreman of his defense, a Jules Koundé who had to see the imbalances of the defense from home.
The Barça coach, now that he has a lot to choose from, spoke this time through the line-up.
He ignored Pjanic to replace Busquets and relied on a 3-4-3 that his players were unable to interpret due to the solvency of the midfielders led by David Silva.
De Jong, whose salary hinders the club so much, was left disoriented and not knowing if he should prioritize looking forward or what was happening behind his neck.
He was accompanied first by Gavi in the pivot, but before the dilapidated organization it had to be Pedri -the only one with the game in his head- who stepped back to take out the flashlight.
A few steps further on was Ferran Torres, decreasing.
Balde stayed with the left-handed winger and the one who marched on the right was Dembélé, unable to go back.
Pedri, in any case, allowed Barça's eyes to light up at dawn.
Between five rivals he managed to give air to a ball that Balde led freely to the Real area.
And there he avoided the temptations of any young man.
He knew how to wait until Lewandowski took the right position at the penalty spot.
The Pole only had to stick out his left foot and rely on his excellent first touch to inaugurate his scoring account as a Barça player in an official match on his 34th birthday.
Only 44 seconds had passed since the start.
Although the Real barely took a breath to reach the tie.
De Jong did not know how to escape from a two against one to the satisfaction of Silva, solemn at the launch of Isak's career.
Eric García thought he was on time, but he could only deflect the ball just enough for it to rise above Ter Stegen.
The German goalkeeper, by the way, seems like another at this start of the course.
Before the steppes that opened, Ter Stegen responded with success.
First, with a point-blank shot from Merino.
Already in the addition of the first act, with a low slap against Silva.
Barcelona sighed when they saw how the referee annulled a goal by Brais Méndez after a lateral foul that Le Normand, offside, did not touch, although his presence influenced the goalkeeper.
And Xavi snorted when he saw how he was right with the entry of Raphinha and, above all, Ansu Fati, whose effect on the match was conclusive.
He gave meaning to Dembélé's chaos and offered Lewandowski the path to the goal, his reason for being.
Everything squared.
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