2023-11-07 21:14:37
There were cries of “Barça, Barça” in Hamburg that 90 minutes later transformed into cries of “Shakhtar, Shakhtar”, so similar and perfectly distinguishable, and whose metamorphosis occurred as Barça and Shakhtar did on the pitch. The neutral ground of Hamburg ended up taking sides, and the Barça team lost a great opportunity to gain followers with football, with the game, with the results, which is the basis of its nature, more than the social media gossip.
Barça made a fool of themselves for not correcting themselves from a bad game, for getting a worse result losing against an inferior opponent than the one on Saturday, for wasting a great opportunity to seal a place in the round of 16 and dedicating themselves to something else butterfly. European classification is not in danger in the Champions League, but the defeat forces additional doses of effort and success against Porto, the next rival, or later in Antwerp.
Xavi came to say with the four substitutions that he considered losing to Shakhtar unacceptable.
Four changes at once
Nothing happens and it happens a lot after the Barça performance. Barça went from bad to worse in its transition from the League to the Champions League. He went from playing badly and winning to playing badly and losing, a drift that invited Xavi to be more precise in his assessment of him, as drastic was he when trying to manage the team when he got rid of his nerves.
Extraordinary situations require extraordinary decisions, and with four changes at once the coach wanted to show that losing to Shakhtar was unacceptable, using the same words he used in San Sebastián. Worse. Intolerable even, because the repetition of the error nullified the purpose of amendment that everyone had. From the coach to the players.
Ephemeral startup effect
He had made five changes to the lineup that, halfway between the rotation to oxygenate the team during the week and the need to excite a reaction, agitated Barça at the beginning, but it was a short-lived effect. The team became lethargic, unable to maintain confidence in the face of the first setback. As simple as Shakhtar finishing first through Matviyenko, the left back, who ran the entire length, escaping from Raphinha and beating Cancelo until he shot into Ter Stegen’s body.
How could it be? Due to the poor functioning of the first line of pressure, which Shakhtar easily surpassed until creating one-on-one situations in the Barça defense. They did not have any major repercussions thanks to Araujo, a wonderful corrector of a team that was easily misplaced.
Radical in possession
The Ukrainian team taught game guidelines very marked by their new coach, Marino Pusic, radical in his desire to advance with passes, without raffle a single ball, steeped in the Dutch school, where he has spent half his life. The execution of the Barça pressure allowed Shakhtar to operate from when Riznyk, the goalkeeper, put the ball into play. He took a hit from Lewandowski in the first minute when he tried to dribble past the forward. The only moment in which the team’s scorer was seen, without finishing in the first half.
It was not daring or recklessness, and if it was, they could afford it, with nothing to lose against Barça and in the middle of a learning period. That freshness contrasted with the management of the Blaugranas, without spark or imagination and some purely official, dictated decisions with the ball.
Two basic, vulgar centers, one on each side from Marcos and Raphinha contrasted with the patient (more than a minute) and beautiful construction of Sikan’s goal, which began with a low change of orientation from Sudakov towards Gocholeishvili (from inside left to right back), the ball that slipped between Gündogan and Marcos, as contemplative as Christiansen’s apathy after losing Sikan’s mark, knowing he was Ter Stegen’s only guardian.
The defects of the first half were not canceled out in the second. Shakhtar continued to do their thing – they finished off Ter Stegen’s body twice first – and the greater risks that Barça took led to the game being concentrated in the Ukrainian half. But without imagination or ideas or a worked structure observed. Something similar to the absence of evolution, the most worrying.
Datasheet
Shakhtar: Riznyk (7); Gocholeishvili (9), Bondar (6), Rakitskyy (7), Matviyenko (8); Stepanenko (6); Zubkov (6), Kryskiv (5), Sudakov (7); Newerton (6); Sikan (8). Technical: Marino Pusic (8). Cambios: Kelsy (4) por Sikan (m. 62); Nazaryna (5) por Stepanenko (m. 73); Shved (sc) por Newerton (m. 98).
Barcelona: Ter Stegen (8); Cancelo (5), Araujo (8), Christensen (4), Marks (4); Gavi (6), Romeu (5), Gündogan (5); Lewandowski (4), Ferran (4). Technician: Xavi Hernandez (4). Substitutions: Bucket (6) by Mark (m. 59); Pedri (5) by Romeu (m. 59); Lamine Yamal (5) by Raphinha (m. 59); John Felix (4) by Ferran (m. 59); Fermin (sc) by Gavi (m. 80).
Goals: 1-0 (m. 40), Sikan.
Referee: Irfan Peljto (6), Bosnian.
Cards: Araujo.
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Estadio: Volksparkstadion (Hamburgo).
Spectators: 49.147.
#bad #worse #League #Champions