The protagonist
Barça did not start looking at the right wing. Rather, it seemed like a left-wing team because Balde, not Ansu, took over all the Barça offensive production. But after the initial quarter of an hour, Ferran raised his voice. As? Asking for the ball, drawing slaloms from his favorite place, determined to defend himself, in need of great nights. Nights that reconcile you with yourself.
And he achieved it in the 1-0 action, the one signed by Sergi Roberto. But almost all of his teammates voluntarily forgot about the scorer because the ideological author was Ferran, capable of signing an old winger play.
Disguised with a cape that was not supposed to. Up to three dribbles, three great dribbles he made prior to the measured center of Lewandowski’s head, repelled on the goal line by Iza Carcelén, but such a beautiful play deserved the prize of going down in the Barça collective memory. Sergi Roberto put the rubric. But the job belonged all to Ferran.
He is not a born dribbler. But he did. And he was.
the tactic
Xavi abandoned the formula of four midfielders against Cádiz. He abandoned him because he did not have Pedri, the piece that gives meaning to all his attacking game. Injured the canary, the technician recovered the original drawing with which he began his career on the bench at the Camp Nou. He appealed to extremes: one deeper (Ferran), another more mobile (Ansu).
He returned to Barça from the extremes so that Lewandowski would be found as easy as possible. He placed Ferran on the right, anchored Ansu on the left, although, in reality, he did not stick to the lime. Not much less.
Ansu moved inwards while Balde occupied the entire band transformed into a winger, interior and winger. A bullet that fills the field with that speed that allows it to overcome anyone who crosses its path. A source of life for Barça.
Marking to…
In the first half, the Camp Nou watched in silence up to three defensive corrections by Christensen. All with his stamp. All discreet. All silent. All full of elegance. The Danish is that type of defense that almost always works in anonymity. Until in the second half, another excellent action by the former Chelsea player caused a spontaneous ovation from the 72,010 spectators who attended the Barça temple.
It hadn’t even been an hour in the game, more than enough time to check, one more game, the reliability of Christensen. It’s not just what he steals, cuts or intercepts. It’s also how he does it. It’s not just his ability to understand what the game demands but his effectiveness in executing it.
That is Christensen, the guy whose companions change (against Cádiz it was Eric as before they were Araujo, Koundé, Marcos or even Piqué before he retired), but he does not change anything.
Nor for Ter Stegen, who cleared up three centers with his fists, also leaving two decisive saves. As usual. There are already 17 days of the 22 with a clean sheet. A real madness! no matter how much Barça suffered more than the scoreboard illustrates, with two balls to the post of Cádiz.
A bad day for…
A bad day for Ansu. A bad night. He was even frustrated because nothing came out of what he was up to. His mind seemed to go ahead of his body. And even from his body. He started on the left wing and ended up as a centre-forward after Xavi removed Lewandowski to save him minutes ahead of United’s decisive European game. But neither in one place nor in the other was the Ansu seen that he was him. Hence his disappointment because he felt, and rightly so, that he was slipping away another night to get closer to who he was before his serious knee injury.
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He left occupying two of the three positions in the attack, backed by the blind trust that the Camp Nou has in him, cheering him on in those moments of darkness. Also when he was replaced by Alarcón, the forward of the subsidiary.
Two shots and both were out causing three fouls (he was a thousandth of a second late) and only receiving one. He even lost nine balls, proof that that angel he had has vanished. But the culé world fired him with an ovation. Applause to mitigate the frustration that has plagued Ansu for months and months.