Barcelona is stiff. Although with a sufficient advantage over Real Madrid not to fear for that League that so longs for a club with penury as the only thread in recent years. The mirriado draw against the remarkable Girona of Míchel served to increase to 13 points ahead of Real Madrid with ten days left for the conclusion of the championship. But it reinforced the unease of a team minimized by casualties, exhausted, without sufficient quality between the lines, and languishing at the hopeless pace of Lewandowski. Meanwhile, the Camp Nou is accustomed to begging for Messi's return.

Little could Xavi Hernández shake the team after the blush of the last classic against Real Madrid and with Pedri, Dembélé, De Jong and Christensen tied to a stretcher where the forecasts are a thing of meigas. Marcos Alonso, one of those singled out in that collapse, stayed on the bench waiting for better times. Eric García appeared in his place, whom, at a good time, they try to make believe that he can be a better midfielder than a center back in the absence of a valid heir for Busquets. Kessié, whose performance in the Cup was marred by an absurd penalty, also lost his place in a drawing that was reconstructed in the academic 4-3-3. He was thus able to have a place in the Ansu Fati lineup, which only an extreme confidence, his own and that of others, will start from limbo where he is.

Barcelona, thus, was reunited with those problems in the construction that have been stalking him since he mourns the absence of Pedri. There is no finesse, nor is there patience, nor did it help this time that Xavi demanded from his players individual markings all over the field as if he had possessed the spirit of Marcelo Bielsa.

That midfield in which Gavi imposes his acceleration without Sergi Roberto being able to keep up with him ended up becoming a toll road again. The solutions, increasingly scarce, went through theft and shoemaking. Ansu tried to activate as much as he could to Raphinha, who had a good chance while staggering and who took out Gazzaniga. The Brazilian is a mystery in himself, but not in dribbling, where he is usually shipwrecked. And the best option of the first act was not Lewandowski, again out of focus, but Araujo, who put the boot in a corner that left the ball one finger away from completely crossing the goal. In the Spanish League there is no goal-line technology, so these actions continue to be resolved by eye.

The Girona of Míchel, one of those commendable teams and those who like to see for their insistence on the denial of fear, had already shown how well their proposal was at the Camp Nou. In fact, his cover letter was twice in the first two minutes. In the first, Koundé arrived in time against the battering ram Castellanos; in the second, the Ukrainian Tsygankov failed to orient his foot on a volley that touched the side of the net. Enough for the Barça to snoop a growing restlessness.

Xavi tried to correct himself by giving entry to Kessié by Sergi Roberto, as if the lack of control could be solved like this. While Míchel, who must have seen how Barcelona tended to leave an ocean between the back of Busquets and the chest of Eric García, asked the talented Aleix García to explore between the lines.

Although it was the full-back Arnau, who spent the game occupying the interior, who left only Taty Castellanos in front of Ter Stegen without Eric being able to follow him. The Argentine could not do worse: he ignored Tsygankov, who could have scored at will, and finished as badly as he could before the agonizing sigh of the Camp Nou. Míchel punished Castellanos with the change and turned to Stuani, a real specialist. But with the hourglass as an implacable enemy.

Ferran Torres and Jordi Alba, emergency solutions at the ends, could solve little. Araujo, runaway and in every corner, was about to mark himself on his own door. Lewandowski, after missing endless controls, looked for the heroic in his heel because he does not find it in his toecap. And Barcelona looks everywhere but the front, as if there was no way to leave behind all those demons that haunt them.

  • FC Barcelona

According to The Trust Project criteria

Learn more