an expensive point for the champion

They do not lose, but they draw, it is the third tied in the League (Getafe, Mallorca and Granada). It doesn’t fall, but it doesn’t move forward. The champion does not give up, but he does not evolve or transmit the reliability that was supposed to be given to those who defend the crown. Barça rescued a point from the chaotic night they experienced at the Nuevo Los Cármenes, a portrait of the contradictions that their football gives off.

He conceded two goals in an unforgivable half hour, he reacted, guided by his heart, shooting more than ever (22 shots, 10 on goal), with a point that cost him dearly. He did not know how to beat the penultimate team in the League, in addition to losing two key pieces due to injury along the way: Koundé and Lamine Yamal.

He is a child, but he plays like angels. He is a boy who a year ago was in the Second RFEF. He is, in reality, a demon. In case he didn’t know him, Barça already knows him. He is a street boy. Malagueño, raised in El Conejito, the capital of the Costa del Sol, who likes Granada wonderfully. And the city is delighted with Bryan Zaragoza, a young man who disconnected Xavi’s team in a sublime half hour.

Xavi’s anger

Sublime for him and chaotic for the Blaugranas, unable to enter the game with the intensity it deserved. Within half an hour, they were already losing 2-0. In half an hour, Xavi was breathing fire. In half an hour, Bryan organized a party in the hot night (23 degrees) of Granada. And he was in such a hurry to invite his friends that 18 seconds into the game he already scored his first goal, a prologue to a wonder that will be remembered forever and ever at the foot of the Sierra Nevada.

At 1-0 everyone was portrayed. From Christensen, and his timid pass to start the play from behind, to Ter Stegen, whose hand was like butter. Gavi also appeared in that catalog of horrors, whose loss in the center of the field turned out to be the origin of the first Andalusian goal, which was contributed by the defensive laziness of Gündogan, who seemed to be having a coffee in the Alhambra.

Non-existent pressure

Without leaving the locker room, Barça was already losing which made Xavi angry, and in what way! The worst was yet to come. Or the best for Granada, who was about to complete an impeccable half hour, leaving that demon dressed in red and white with a ‘messianic’ play.

Barça’s pressure was non-existent so Gumbau had time to raise his head and discover the tiny figure of Bryan, who slipped between the right back – Cancelo was busy guarding Boyé – and the right-footed centre-back: Jules Koundé. One of the most renowned defenders in Europe. A guy with crafts and knowledge. But it was of no use to him against the devil, who beat him in all facets of the game.

First he took over the space, snatching it from the Frenchman, then he outran him with exquisite control that placed him in the showcase, just before leaving a couple of gestures, sorry there were three, to score a monumental goal. It was 2-0. Two dribbles, each more beautiful, with the impudence of unconsciousness, made Koundé dizzy in such a way that they made him lose his sense of direction. He didn’t know where he was.

Lamine Yamal’s historic goal

The third and final technical gesture that put Nuevo Los Cármenes on its feet was still missing. A blow from the outside that left Ter Stegen petrified, while Koundé tried to get up, still dizzy. Unfortunately for him, the Frenchman left the stadium injured minutes later when Gavi fell on his left knee.

And Barça was also stunned by so much bad news until Lamine Yamal collected, already with the clock reaching the 45th minute of the first half, a ball that was wandering without any owner through the Andalusian small area.

A goal for history. Nobody as young as him (16 years and 87 days) has scored a goal in the Spanish League. Yours is the record. Thus, in the last breath of the first phase, Barça became hooked on the game when it was most out of it. And he took advantage of it after the break when, finally, they found Lamine Yamal, a player who is often ignored by his teammates. Presumably not of his own free will. But it is obvious that he does not come into play as often as he should. And he demands Xavi himself.

Araujo for everything

Everything changed after the break, increasing Gündogan’s presence at the same time. It wasn’t difficult either because until then he had had little weight in a match that combusted with Araujo lighting the flame. Maybe he was a corrective central defender, his routine job, as a right winger – yes, winger! -, leaving a dangerous center and finishing as ‘nine’ with a play worthy of Lewandowski, whose powerful shot with his right leg after an extraordinary turn scraped the André Ferreira’s left post, who has become Granada’s other hero. The first was Bryan, of course.

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In the midst of the disorder, Barça tied with an action on the left wing after a cross from Balde (left-back) finished off in the small area by Sergi Roberto (right-back) because Lamine Yamal’s injury had caused Cancelo to advance his position until act as an extreme.

There was no truce. No control. With the score at 2-2, once the most difficult thing was done, Barça got tangled up in a clumsiness that Bryan almost punished, again. His right foot hit Ter Stegen’s left post to unleash the volcano that he had inside him, and Xavi had outside him. The New Los Cármenes then resorted to his favorite cry: “Negreira, Negreira, Negreira!!”. The Andalusian public understood that the referee Soto Grado had helped Barcelona in the equalizer, a preamble to the goal disallowed by João Félix already in added time when verifying that there was interference from Ferran Torres in the play. It was late. Too late. He has Madrid as the leader and three points. And Míchel’s Girona is following, with one more point than Xavi’s Barça.