EUROPE LEASGUE: GALATASARAY 1-BARCELONA 2 | Comeback before the Clásico

Barça will arrive at the Clasico on Sunday with their homework done after beating Galatasaray at home (1-2) and sealing their qualification for the Europa League quarterfinals. Xavi’s were from less to more and ended up overcoming a situation that at the beginning had become very difficult with the goal of the Turks. Barça came out of hell alive, but without clearing up all the questions ahead of Sunday.

If one thing was clear to Barça before playing the second leg against Galatasaray, it was that they could not repeat the mistakes of the game a week ago at the Camp Nou. Xavi also listed them in the preview as the accomplice teacher who the day before the exam tells the students “above all, review this and this lesson, they are important”.

Well, not for those. Barça knew the exam questions and its staging was once again suspenseful. Of course, in front of him there was also a teacher, Domènec Torrent, who also knew where to catch his opponent’s pupils. He had had them in previous courses.

Barça lacked the intensity that their coach asked for. Perhaps leaving Gavi on the bench was not the best decision, because if someone embodies that facet in the Barcelona team, he is the smallest in the class.

To try to improve the ball output, which was another of the subjects suspended at the Camp Nou, Xavi once again left Araújo on the bench for the second consecutive game, giving the responsibility to Eric. Perhaps too much. The Catalan rushed into attacking actions and in defense he began to suffer against Gomis’ skill and rear, typical of a basketball pivot, which allowed him to protect the ball. And if that was not enough, Van Aanholt had taken Adama’s license plate, who couldn’t find a way to beat him.

With this panorama it is not surprising that Galatasaray prevailed at the start. Barcelona was able to deactivate the staging of the Turks with a magnificent occasion by Frenkie de Jong, who only threw it out against Iñaki Peña. The Dutchman had done everything right: unchecking and control, but he failed to finish.

This failure gave wings to the locals, who, driven by a crowd that shouted to the point of preventing not only any instruction on the field of play from being heard, but not even their own thoughts (whoever had them), began to explode the Barça’s weaknesses behind. Babbel began to search for the space between Eric and Alba and forced a corner that was the first goal. Strategy play (another of Xavi’s warnings in the previous one) and Marcao’s header to the back of the net. Now, Barça was forced to score two goals.

The improvement of Barça came by way of Pedri, the most lucid player of the match that in a delicious play for the class and the pause inside the area, he knocked down two rivals and scored the equalizing goal that put Barça back in the match. A match, to which he returned in the second half already without Adama and with Dembélé on the pitch.

And look where, the entry of the Frenchman, who is on his way to becoming the example employee of the institution, woke up his teammates, who scored the second after four minutes. Yes indeed, It was necessary to shoot three times in a row to beat an Iñaki Peña who first stopped a shot from Busquets deflected by a defender, then one at point-blank range from Pedri until Aubameyang already shot him with a pass from Frenkie de Jong.

It had cost him much more than he wanted, but Barça finally had the game where he wanted. Now what it was about was defending with the ball and waiting for the opportunity to sentence. Although the unforeseen Dest injury intervened in the development of this plan.

In the last ten minutes, Galatasaray has already shamelessly gone up and its public, too. Even too much and some objects began to fall near the goal and the Blaugrana bench. Kerem became the main threat for a Barça that was seen in the last moments with more problems than expected, the game was in a bundle of nerves and Alba threw a ball into the stands when two objects fell next to her and the players got into an argument. The Turkish hell was beginning to show signs of life.

With spirits somewhat calmer, Barça knew how to redirect the situation and play the six added minutes without going through too much trouble. Mission accomplished, but questions remain.