Dembélé by the epic route

Once again, the epic came to rescue Barça, who with their agonizing victory over a heroic Valladolid 1-0 with a goal from Dembélé in the 90th minute, he is one point behind the leader and continues to depend on himself to win LaLiga. But the epic and the miracle of Dembélé does not cover that the Blaugrana team was again one millimeter away from hitting an unjustifiable blow.

The topics in soccer are as hateful as they are true. And when faced with a duel that seems placid for a Barcelona with pretense of assaulting the leadership after the national team stoppage, receiving a Valladolid who appeared at the Camp Nou with the scapegoat poster and six days into the Classic, someone speaks of 'cheating match 'is for something. It is a tacky expression, but if it has settled in the football imaginary it will be for something. For parties like the one that Barça and Valladolid played.

Koeman repeated the line-up for the fourth consecutive game, ignoring the risk involved in aligning Messi and De Jong, who went out onto the field to play with the threat that a yellow card would throw them out of the Classic. The bravery of the Dutch coach on the board seeking to trace the team that gave such a good result before the break was the only thing recognizable with respect to Barça that thrashed Real. The Catalan team perpetrated a dreadful staging.

Slow, imprecise, obsessed with entering the center, where Dembélé could not find spaces, the game was a ball for Barcelona. Quite the opposite of Valladolid. Sergio won the tactical game at the start and his team not only defended itself perfectly but also punished Barça's constant turnovers. They lacked aim, but in the first act it always gave the feeling that the game that the pucelanos wanted was being played.

Kodro warned with a header to the crossbar at 9 minutes and the arrivals on the wing of Olaza, that in the second half he had a great chance, and Janko created danger against a Barça with a flat encephalogram that only gave signs of life in the first half discount with a far shot from Pedri that Masip touched just enough to deflect the ball to the post .

Barça could not find the way and played with fire. Koeman was forced to move something for the second half, Valladolid had to put up with the excellent game he was offering and only improve its production in the final meters.

Did not change the local coach players, but if the drawing has a 4-3-3 that took Dembélé to the band and De Jong to the center of the field.

Dembélé in ten minutes as a winger intervened more than in the entire first half and at 59 minutes he forced Masip to show off with a rejection that Griezmann, unpublished until that moment, did not manage to hock head.

Valladolid was not impressed by the pressure from Barcelona and responded to the challenge with courage. The pucelanos claimed a penalty by Alba just before Koeman revolutionized his team giving entry to Griezmann, Trincāo and Araújo.

Barça's desperate siege collided with an imperial Masip who led a team that did not break down even when the referee surprisingly expelled Óscar Plano in 79. In inferiority, Sergio's men fought like wild boars against an accelerated Blaugrana team without patience and desperately fighting against the clock. But, as it happened before Rayo or Sevilla, luck smiled at Barça at the last minute.