The spotlights are back on Joao Felix. And not for something positive, as when in November, the Portuguese led the team's attack, being the decisive footballer that everyone expects in the Wanda Metropolitano. Criticism focused on him (and Saul) in the after the game that the Atlético de Madrid he played on Saturday at the Martínez Valero.
He was a substitute and jumped onto the pitch in the 55th minute of the game, with a lot of time ahead to be the protagonist and help the team close the match. But not
brightness. He only had a good deed in which I can sentence, but he never gave the feeling of being able to do it.
The problems in his right ankle that he has been dragging on for months and that are not letting him perform as he wanted did not help at all. The Portuguese took advantage of one of the rest days that the coaching staff granted to the squad to treat the joint, with the aim of arriving in good condition at the momentous event on Saturday at the Camp Nou.
Joao Félix still has to sign a great performance in a big game. And although he does not arrive at his best moment, he will try to make it against Barcelona, a team against which he has not yet managed to score in the four games he has played against the Barça team, three of them as a starter.
The only one that was not in the eleven was precisely last season at the Camp Nou. He entered the field in minute 68. Of course, of those four games he has played against Barça, he has only lost once. In the clash of the Metropolitan last year (0-1) with a goal from Messi in the last minutes.
We say that Portuguese is not going through its best moment, and you just have to go to the numerical sources to check it. His last goal dates from February 28, against Villarreal in La Cerámica. But it is that in all of 2021 he has only achieved another ‘target’, in January against Valencia. Since that day, he has only started three times. And in the league, in seven of the 15 games he has played with Atlético.
Although the mattress team begins to prepare this appointment this Tuesday, and there are four training sessions ahead, everything indicates that Joao Felix He will not start at the Camp Nou and that he will wait for his opportunity on the bench. But starting from there, it can also be decisive and important. Something that all mattress makers claim.