Who says new year, says new resolutions. For FC Barcelona, the time has come to improve its game in order to somewhat revive the title race. Because yes, the Blaugranas did not show a face worthy of Barça DNA on the green rectangle. For its first meeting of 2024, as part of the 20th day of La Liga, Barça, relegated to fifth place after the victory of Athletic Club – new third in the championship – traveled to the pitch of interestingly promoted Las Palmas, resident of the first part of the table before this match. For this meeting, Xavi Hernandez could count on the presence on his bench of his new winter recruit, Vitor Roque, who arrived a few days ago from Club Athletico Paranaense.
Very quickly in this meeting, we felt the Barcelonans lacked confidence in the face of a voluntary promotion in the game. After only five minutes, the Portuguese right side João Cancelo collapsed and had to leave his team due to pain. Knee. Barça was then surprised by two products from its own training center: after good work on the right lane, the Spaniard Sandro Ramirez found the Moroccan Munir El Haddadi, who came ahead of Iñaki Peña in the area to open the scoring ( 1-0, 12th) for his second goal of the season. Sandro was even close to making the break, but his shot, blocked by Jules Koundé, hit the left post of the Catalan goalkeeper (29th).
A Barça in “diesel” mode
The best offensive player for Barcelona? Maybe Sergi Roberto. The Blaugrana captain was one, if not the only one, to propose solutions behind the defense and was even too altruistic against Alvaro Valles (44th). Not enough to reassure Catalan supporters in the face of such a lack of offensive creativity from theirs. Returning from the locker room, the men of the other Xavi, García Pimienta, were still just as dangerous in the opposing camp, as evidenced by Munir’s tight angle shot deflected by Peña’s fists (53rd). A few moments later, Ferran Torres, on a favorable counter from Roberto, adjusted the opposing goalkeeper (1-1, 55th), too short to slam the Tiburon’s low shot (shark in Spanish). In the Palmense half, Xavi’s men accumulated offside positions (14 in total), notably due to a yellow block very high on the pitch.
The locals were not far from surprising the last Catalan rampart with an uncrossed header from Mika Mármol at the entrance to the goal area (79th). The Blaugrana coach decided to start Vitor Roque for his first appearance with Barcelona. The Brazilian international striker was close to taking advantage of a weak recovery towards Valles, who was ultimately very vigilant (81st). We had to wait for added time to witness a breathtaking scenario: pushed in the back in front of the empty goal by Daley Sinkgraven – sent off (90+2nd), Ilkay Gündogan obtained a penalty and did himself justice to offer an unexpected success to his team (2 -1, 90+4th). In the final moments of added time, Roque even had two chances, one grazing the left post and the other blocked in the area (90+7th). A victory therefore, and three important points for FC Barcelona, only third in the standings ahead of Atlético and Bilbao. Las Palmas may regret and remains stuck in 10th place.
