From the eternity of the goal against PSG to being the savior of Barça against bottom team Almería. Life can be very twisted.
Sergi Roberto lived the most beautiful day of his career that March 2017 when he led to the comeback against the Parisians at a Camp Nou dedicated to ecstasy and tears. This Wednesday, in the gloomy Montjuïc, Sergi Roberto also felt very lucky. Although the stage had nothing to do with it. The feat this time was to knock down an Almería team that played with other people’s drama with two goals. Welcome to the present.
Raphinha is a strange footballer. He runs a lot, but without much sense. He’s also not too skilled when the ball goes around his feet. He plays angry, as if he can only advance by rebelling at windmills. He also feels misunderstood. When he scored against Almería, the worst team in the League, in the midst of Barça’s nonsense, and with the four cats that went up to Montjuïc whistling in the face of such a depressing first half, the boy had no choice but to put his fingers in his ears. A gesture that explains the unreality in which the team lives, but also the club. Xavi’s Barça, for its president Joan Laporta, is a clear contender to win the Champions League.
Before Raphinha will celebrate his third goal in the League as if there were no tomorrow – after a corner kick, they only had to push the ball over the goal line after a header from Araujo and a short deflection from Maximiano – Barça had just had a horrible time. But according to its time. The fast pace of the Barça players, who tried to play with their hands in their pockets without noticing that Fermín intended the opposite, allowed Almería to play so fast. After an Almeria possession that seemed eternal, and with Xavi’s players unwilling to put pressure on, the Montjuïc fans began to complain.
Almería takes to the mountains
João Félix’s version was not the brilliant one, but the ghostly one; Gündogan, a priori the great brain of the team, passed the ball to the rivals; Christensen piled up errors, so many that the designated Koundé had to leave after the break; and Lewandowski, well, to his work.
So it was not surprising that Almería ended up taking to the mountain. Araujo badly rejected a long pass and Baptistao scored on Iñaki Peña. The Almería striker was not offside by a few centimeters. Yes, he was in the previous action, but the referee did not judge that one.
Barça improved in attitude in the second half, something when there is no plan or game. Ferran Torres helped with this. But above all the efforts of Sergi Roberto, who turned his fabled neck in the 2-1 after a corner that didn’t seem like it. A serious error by Iñaki Peña, taken advantage of by Edgar, led Almería to a momentary tie that Sergi Roberto, with all his heart, denied after being enabled by Lewandowski.
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The Barça captain came out acclaimed by a Montjuïc stadium that presented the worst entrance of the season (34,471 spectators) and against an Almería that still has not won a game.
The joys now come from these small victories. Better not to look back, no matter how much the present hurts and the future worries.