The result at the Camp Nou was not fair. The Barça was much higher than Naples and made more merits to achieve a better result for the second leg at the Diego Armando Maradona next Thursday. But the team grows and is becoming more and more the version they want Xavi Hernandez. Mateu Alemany, Barca football director, requested it before the match: “It’s an opportunity to demonstrate our level, the progression at work”. And the team complied and showed that they are ready to compete in this competition against one of the strongest teams left in the running. All that was missing was “the last little touch”, as Jordi Cruyff said at the end. In fact, Barça was the most offensive so far this season. Collecting data from the six Champions League games in the first phase and comparing them with yesterday’s, the Barça team achieved the record for shots (21) and the best record for shots on goal (5).
Previously, the best numbers had been against Dynamo Kiev, in the match in Ukraine. So there were 15 shots and four of them between the three suits. The worst offensive performance, on the other hand, was in the first match against Bayern Munich at home, in a game to forget and in which no goal was seen. Nor was it attempted, because the five attempts by the Barcelona fans, then trained by Ronald KoemanThey walked out of the arch.
An intense and hungry team
the path of Barça from Xavi He is on the right path, the one that his coach has in mind. The team is going further and it was already seen from the first half. yesterday, with Frenkie de Jong and Nico Gonzalez as starters the team was solid, they played in the opposite field, having the ball and controlling the game. And also very intense in the pressure and when it comes to recovering the ball after losing. Without going any further, they achieved 74 recoveries among all.
In the second half, with the changes, the team kept up the pace and intensity. He managed to tie the game after the initial goal of the Neapolitans in the first half and went for more, with the team turned upside down.
They tried it mainly by bands. With Dembeleless open than Adama, but leaving lane to Dest, who also tried some center. And inside almost everyone tried it and in every possible way. Ferranthe one who tried it the most, although he also attended on occasion, and Luke de Jong, the resource that Xavi took in the last minutes and that he had two shots. A Chilean that would have been the goal of the year and a header that saved Meret.
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