An experimental Barça debuts with a tie in Olot

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Xavi’s Barça started with a draw in Olot. Although any resemblance to Barça that Xavi imagines is purely coincidental. It was such an experimental team, full of young people everywhere, that it was almost unrecognizable.

Many debuts, many premieres, poor offensive production (Aubameyang’s goal after a pass from Ter Stegen, from area to area) and nothing else to certify that the new era begins, as usual (the sacred cows are missing, the signings are missing, Lewandowski) full of unknowns.

The details of Pablo Torre

The game started late. A quarter of an hour later than the scheduled time. Why? Very simple. Barça arrived in Olot so precisely for its summer debut that there was barely half an hour left before the start of the first friendly. Then, he quickly went into action, thanks above all to the intuition and intelligence of Pablo Torre, that Cantabrian boy who has seduced Xavi.

Not even 10 minutes of the game did he need to leave his letter of introduction. A card full of class because he cut Aimar with adult wisdom, whom he raffled with a delicate pipe in the center of the field of the Municipal Stadium of the capital of La Garrotxa. Caño and delicate assistance for Aubameyang, frustrated all that beautiful action by the excellent stop of Battle, who took out his right hand with energy and strength. But the signal was already launched. Pablo does not want to stay in the subsidiary, the destination to which he is initially sent.

Barça in the first half was, in reality, more from La Masia than from the first team. Only five players (Ter Stegen, who acted as captain, Dest, who assumed the role of right back, Nico, whom Xavi tried out as a central midfielder, Kessié, who debuted as a right-handed midfielder, and Aubameyang, a pure nine) with a professional record .

six of the house

Those five from the first team were escorted by six youngsters from the academy: Arnau Casas, Mika Mármol and Àlex Valle completed the rear, with Pablo Torre as the only intruder in midfield, while the wings (Ilias on the right and Abde on the left) were also from the house.

The good was Pablo’s work and the auctions always belonged to Aubameyang. The first was repelled by Batalla, the second, which was a comfortable header, was spat out by the crossbar, and the third, which ended in the Barça goal, was a soft treat. The most direct and simplest football to sign the 0-1. Take out the goalkeeper and finish off the nine.

The delicacy of ‘Auba’

There are no more secrets or tactics manuals to explain this lethal combination. Ter Stegen served with power, but, above all, with exquisite precision, while the former Arsenal striker galloped into the open field in the land of volcanoes without any Olot defender taking the hint.

The pass from the German goalkeeper was extraordinary. But even more extraordinary was the touch of the Gabonese to falsely leave Battle’s half start (I’m going to look for him or I stay under the sticks and, in the end, neither one thing nor the other) while the ball, mocking her, flew proudly over the hot sky of Olot.

On the third try, Aubameyang found the reward. Faster can not be the action of the goal. Barely six seconds passed since the ball left Ter Stegen’s right foot until it landed on the Olot net.

Barca defensive disorder

The game then had a Barça stamp, although it soon got complicated. In the final quarter hour of the first half he did not interpret the defensive system well. Nor did he notice the warning that Carles Mas’s header meant in which Ter Stegen had the complicity of his left post to avoid the tie.

A tie that came a couple of minutes later, already over 45, when eloi amagat, a football institution in Girona and its province, scored the penalty that lifted the 3,300 people who filled the Municipal de Olot from their seats. At the end of the first half, Xavi took note of several things.

Ansu, who was captain, played nine

To begin with, the calm with which he moves Paul Tower with his back to the goal, located in those squares where his interiors must work. He does not suffer there, while Kessie, the other interior, he liked to be more dynamic, peeking into the rival area in the race.

After the break, Xavi moved practically the entire team. situated to Pjanic midfielder, placed Ansu nine, sent Collado to the right wing and let Inaki Pena take the place of Ter Stegen under the sticks, in addition to returning to Pedri to the site that provisionally belonged to Pablo Torre. In other words, inside lefty.

Actually, in Olot they saw more Barça B than the first team. Only five in the first part. Barely three (Pjanic, Pedri, who was wearing the number ‘eight’ shirt for the first time, honored by Iniesta, and Ansu, wearing the captain’s armband that Ter Stegen had worn before) or four (if Iñaki Peña is included).

A team, whichever way you look at it, absolutely experimental from which Xavi can draw few conclusions, where Àlex Valle, who started as a left back and ended up as a left winger, had a great chance in the second half repelled, again, by the wood.

Everything was so new that Ansu happily displayed those Barça colors on his left arm in a match where the 21 players who arrived late to Olot performed. Only Àlex Valle completed the 90 minutes of a game, the first of the summer, which serves as a prologue for the American tour that starts on Saturday for Xavi’s Barça.

Inaki’s hands

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A team that dominated the second half, shutting down Olot, but without any malice. He had no spark or aim, no matter how much Pedri and Ansu shared complicities on the pitch. Up to two clear occasions the canary missed, always running into Battle, the lanky local goal.

And from goalkeeper to goalkeeper because Iñaki Peña was decisive in a couple of actions when the game was already dying. Two good saves and help, as happened to Ter Stegen from the wood, to prevent Olot from taking the game when night began to fall on the Estadi.

The file of the Olot – Barça (1-1)

Olot: Battle, Aimar, Ayala (Gerard, m. 61), Carles Mas (Ot Serrano, m. 46), Bigas, Terma (Xumetra, m. 46), Manzano (Eric Vilanova, m. 61), Eloi Amagat (Forés , m, 46), Callís (Blázquez, m. 74), Ferran Brugué (Gonzalo, m 46) and Urri (Enric, m, 61)

Barca: Ter Stegen, Dest (Casadó, m. 46), Arnau Casas (Fabio Blanco, m. 73), Mika Mármol (Chadi, m. 46), Àlex Valle, Kessié (Aranda, m. 46), Nico (Pjanic, m 46), Pablo Torre (Pedri, m. 46) Ilias (Collado, m. 46), Aubameyang (Ansu Fati, m. 46) and Abde (Balde, m. 46).

Goals: 0-1, Aubameyang (d. 27); 1-1, Eloi Amagat (m. 45, penalty)

Yellow cards: Terma (d. 37); Mika Marble (d. 44)



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