Barça wins from a penalty and in added time and avoids the collapse

Penalty. Controversial penalty in added time. Barça survived a penalty in Las Palmas, after a horrible first half. Penalty, protested by the Canarian team because they understood that Sinkgraven’s push to Gündogan was not enough to decree that maximum penalty.

A penalty scored by Gündogan, celebrated as if it were a title by a Barcelona that lived on the brink of final collapse, having Xavi attacked because his team did not advance. Vitor Roque made his debut and missed a goal, getting used, yes, to the blaugranas, to winning by the minimum. Penalty. But it is worth a treasure for a Barça that is still seven points behind Madrid and Girona.

Horrible opening 45 minutes

Everything remains the same at Barça. Just as bad. Bad because Xavi’s quarrels don’t permeate the squad. Bad because the team plays badly. Bad because he concedes goals easily. The rival doesn’t matter. It is not important. Sometimes, Girona; sometimes, Almería and now Las Palmas. Everyone has the plan to dismantle an inert Barcelona, ​​leaving a terrible first half wrapped in an endless fight between their own players. With Xavi, included.

They were 45 despicable minutes, incapable of offering resistance or even rebellion against the work of García Pimienta, a coach who was kicked out of La Masia. His team, Las Palmas, was recognizable from start to finish. He had the ball, he created chances, he did damage, he caused a trap into which Barça naively fell. The sad Barça that went to the locker room at the end of the first half without leaving a single shot on goal.

Defensive errors

A dying team passed through the Canary Islands, without rebellion. No soul. Not football. And, furthermore, Cancelo was injured in a play that left Xavi’s team naked. He was seen disfigured in Munir’s goal, born from a second action after a corner kick that disorganized the Barça defense. He messed it up in such a way that Sandro had all the time in the world to assist Munir from the right wing, the forward who slipped through the center of the area against the laziness of Christensen and Araujo, which allowed him to get ahead of an outmatched Iñaki Peña.

After the first half, Barça lost. But there was no greater defeat than that scandalous 7-0. Seven shots from Las Palmas (three on goal, one goal, one goal) and none from the Blaugranas. He tried three times, but ran into some Canarian defender. Something that had never happened to him in this League, while Sergi Roberto, in his discussion with the referee González Fuertes, symbolized the frustration of a disoriented champion.

Improvement in the second half

It was worse than against Almería. Much worse. The face of Xavi, who was dejected, crestfallen, sad, towards the locker room said it all. If before the Christmas holidays he gave the biggest fight of his time as a coach, what should he have said to them after Munir’s 1-0? Barça was a nervous wreck. No trace of that sober and solvent Iñaki Peña who emerged at the beginning, now transformed into a flan.

With João Félix sitting and designated on the bench, Ferran Torres’ formula as a double ‘nine’ alongside Lewandowski did not go well at all. The emotional message did not sink in. Neither does the tactician. He had no patience, he got confused in frontal passes that were intelligently defended by Álvaro Valles.

In the second half, an unprepared goal from Ferran Torres restored hope to Barcelona. First shot on goal, first goal. Everything changed because that shame could not tolerate what had been experienced before. Thus came the tie after a grotesque action in which the former City striker was calm to hunt down a ball that had no owner.

And Xavi took out Lewandowski

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He hunted it and carefully deposited it in the Canary net, which then showed moments of suffering. It was inevitable because Barça was facing the precipice. And Xavi, upon verifying that Ferran’s goal had not awakened his team as he expected, activated the red button. He removed Lewandowski, something never seen before, with the score at 1-1, and opted for Vitor Roque, whose deep unchecking scared Las Palmas, although he then missed an incredible chance.

In that decision, taking the Polish striker off the field, the coach knew what was at stake. And in added time, the penalty came, a controversial penalty, for a push to Gündogan that he scored himself. He ended up suffering, but won a match. From a penalty and in added time.