The defensive solidity of Xavi’s team remains intact and is key for the team to be the leader of the League
Ter Stegen has only conceded eight goals in the championship and has 18 clean sheets in 24 games
Barça has carried out a new survival exercise this afternoon at the Spotify Camp Nou against Valencia. The blaugrana have prevailed by the minimum (1-0) thanks to a goal by Raphinha in the first half and a great defense from their area in the last half hour after losing ten due to the expulsion of Araujo.
No one can doubt the defensive solidity of this team, which has accumulated ten 1-0 victories this season, eight of them in the League and two in the Copa del Rey, against Real Sociedad in the quarterfinals and last Thursday at the Santiago Bernabéu in the first leg of the semifinals. And it is that his goalkeeper, Marc André Ter Stegen, is on his way to breaking all records. There are eighteen league games in which the German goalkeeper has managed to keep a clean sheet. He has only conceded a goal in six games and is on his way to winning his first Zamora. There are only eight goals conceded by Ter Stegen in the League, something that no one had achieved after the first 24 days of the championship. The record of the current Barça is better than that of Deportivo in the 1993/94 season, which had conceded nine goals at this point in the championship, and Atlético de Madrid in the 2017/18 season, with the same goals conceded. The fourth best record, with ten goals conceded, is shared by Barça in the 1986/87 season and Atlético de Madrid in the 1990/91 season.
BEATING IRIBAR
Ter Stegen, who today paid homage to José Ángel Iribar for his 80 years wearing black, as the majority of goalkeepers in the League have also done, coincidentally broke another mark held by the legendary Athletic goalkeeper. He is the first goalkeeper to concede just one goal in the first twelve games played at home.