Ousmane Dembele is the great hope of Barça ahead of the ‘final’ this Wednesday at the Allianz Arena in Munich. Despite the blow caused by the unexpected defeat against him Betis at the Camp Nou, the first of its kind Xavi, the Barça team must cling to the good minutes offered by the French striker against the Verdiblanco team to believe in the miracle of being able to go to the last 16 of the Champions League, and more, before the safe loss of Ansu Fati, another decisive footballer in the Barça attack who will not arrive in time for the Munich appointment.
In the 31 minutes he was on the pitch against Betis, and despite the conceded goal, Barça was another in attack with the presence of Dembélé. The data confirm that the Barça team, almost disappeared facing the rival’s goal in the first 45 minutes, where a forced shot by Coutinho was all their baggage, changed after the break, especially due to the contribution of Dembélé from minute 58, when He entered replacing precisely the Brazilian.
THE MOST FINAL
ALREADY SCORED IN MUNICH
BLIND FAITH OF XAVI
Barça added 10 shots throughout the game -3 between sticks and 7 away-, of which 8 were in the second half. Almost all, already with Dembélé in the field. The Frenchman tried it four times, although all his shots ended up outside the goal defended by Rui Silva. As soon as he entered the field, Dembélé loaded the team behind his back and tried a first shot from the left and, almost immediately, returned to the charge with another shot from the right, but again his shot went wide. Still 0-0, he tried his luck twice more, the second after a great dribble in the area, but his shots went out again, just barely. Figures that exposed some of his colleagues.
Three games from the bench
However, and after three games accumulating minutes since his reappearance against Benfica, just after relapsing from his injury in Kiev, Dembélé is now ready to start the ‘final’ against Bayern the day after tomorrow. To be in the round of 16, Barça need to beat Bayern – on five occasions they have visited Allianz they have lost three and drawn two – or, at least, add the same result as Benfica against Dinamo Kiev at Da Stadium. Lisbon light.
Xavi, his great supporter
The one who will have the last word for his starting line-up against Bayern will be Xavi, although his manifestations after the duel against Betis suggest that Barça will play with Dembélé and ten more at the Allianz Arena. “Ousmane generates enthusiasm because he is a great player, we have protected him because there was risk. He is a benchmark player, he is the Dembélé we want, “said the coach about the role of the French winger, who has come to point out that” he may be the best in the world in his position. ” Xavi has blind confidence in Dembélé and has been publicly in favor of Barça making every effort to retain him once his current contract ends on June 30. In fact, if the Frenchman decides to take another path – even Dembélé has now always shown his desire to continue but his agent does not translate those words on paper to sign his renewal – Xavi has also made it clear that he is not a supporter of sit him on the stands.
He won and scored with Dortmund
Another piece of information for Barça’s hope for the game against Bayern is that Ousmane Dembélé already knows what it means to score and win at the Allianz Arena. It was in the semifinals of the 2016-17 German Cup, when the French winger scored the final 2-3 for Dortmund after cutting inside the area and placing the ball throughout the squad. In addition, he gave the 2-2 assist to Aubameyang. That Cup was the only title he won in his only season in Germany. With Barça, he missed the Camp Nou game and despite being called up, he did not play at 2-8.
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