Narration and statistics This is how we live the match
Classification This is the
Robert Lewandowski refers to the strikers of another era, the one in which crow's feet did not define the footballer, but rather his aura.
His duty with the goal.
He flew the Pole against Valladolid to emulate Cruyff's foreshortening against Reina in 1973. And he twisted his sanity by taking out the spur in another unnatural position.
The ball grazed Joaquín, sank Masip, and ended up where Lewandowski always marks the last frontier: the net.
[Narration and stats: 4-0]
José Rojo Pacheta, with the 2-0 against, decided to turn around and return to his bench.
The Valladolid coach says that he gets carried away by sounds, not so much by images.
And that the Camp Nou, where his team suffered torture this Sunday, is capable of dragging you into extreme suffering when fans and footballers reach communion.
It was what happened.
The people of Valladolid could do little against this new Barcelona, with a squad full of talent and irreverence to which Xavi Hernández is beginning to make sense.
His Barça is already flying.
And he does it without Piqué or Jordi Alba.
It is true that competitive ability will have to be measured in high-level duels - the Champions League group stage, for example - but what was shown in their duel against Valladolid goes far beyond green shoots.
Not only because of that aggressive pressure that trapped Pacheta's men in their field or because of a dynamism that does not decrease.
Finally, Xavi's Barcelona intends to acquire its own personality, marked by the tremendous incidence of extremes -from the neatness and intelligence of Raphinha to the unpredictability of Dembélé-;
the presence in the area of a finisher, Lewandowski, who weighs both scoring (he already has four goals) and dragging traps;
or the defenders who, in their elaboration task, draw an umbilical cord with the interiors, with Eric García spotting Pedri and Koundé learning to decipher Gavi.
Despite months of asset sales or lever activations, which is what those who live in the box like to call it, there was not even enough for Jules Koundé to be registered as a Barcelona footballer in the first two days.
The former Sevilla player, baffled in salary limbo, finally appeared as a right-back against Valladolid because president Joan Laporta and his treasurer endorsed the registration, yes, with his own assets.
Symptom of the urgency with which a club is being governed that rejects the temptation of the war economy in the hope that sports regeneration will be immediate.
The illusion, in this football, is paid.
YLaporta, who appeared in the box at the Camp Nou with a virulé eye but with a smile from ear to ear,
Raphinha, whose signing was questioned due to its high price or the identity of the commission agents, completed a stupendous performance while he had the strength.
He made life miserable for Escudero on the right bank and provided as many quality crosses as he could.
He spotted Lewandowski's head in the first big Barça chance, which ended with the ball hitting the post and the back of goalkeeper Masip.
And Raphinha tried again, with an even more tense assistance, even better directed between the center backs and the goalkeeper.
Although the coronation required Lewandowski's raised leg flight.
Dembélé, who had just tested the stability of the crossbar with a hard kick, was the one who found Pedri in a coral-scented 2-0.
Araujo stole, Busquets made sense, Dembélé accelerated while Lewandowski dragged, and Pedri, alone on the balcony, defined sweetly.
Pacheta tried to get his men to react.
That, despite the torment, they raised their chins.
But neither Xavi's changes reduced the pressure, nor Ter Stegen lowered his arms - he scored a goal from Sergio León the first time the focus came to him -, nor did Lewandowski miss the opportunity to take his second goal with his back to the goal.
He was already in front of her at 4-0 when Masip rejected a shot to the crossbar and Sergi Roberto had no more to accompany.
It was the culmination of a day that Barcelona fans, perhaps rightly so, established as a starting point.
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