With a Barca side that had looked second-best in most games, Barcelona came into this game with 3 must-wins ahead of them, vs Porto, Atleti, and Girona. After a shaky stretch of games, starting with Marc Guiu saving Barca 3 points vs Bilbao, then a shaky finish vs Shakhtar, collapse in El Clasico, Araujo doing a Guiu vs Sociedad, an awful defeat vs Shakhtar, a come-from-behind win vs Alaves, and draw vs Rayo, the Barca faithful had started to ask questions of Xavi, who had reserved Barca to playing uninspiring football for the last 2 months. Personally, I had little expectations going into this one, thinking a draw was likely the best we could get.
My expectations were confirmed in the first half-hour. More of the same uninspiring football, a few chances here and there, but it was deadlock football when Barca should have been the better side. It ended when a Porto counter was (eventually) converted by Pepe (not the center back). I was disappointed, but based on how Barca had been playing, not surprised. I was surprised, however, by how Barca played after. We started finally showing the hunger I had been desperate to see over the last games, and scored 2 minutes after Porto’s goal with a wonder goal from Joao Cancelo, with the celebration after being pretty much the same as his Celta Vigo winner.
Cancelo played incredibly, with long ball after long ball connecting, and he could seemingly do no wrong. He ended up playing 5 Key passes. After the goal, Barca took the driver’s seat, getting most of the chances, with Raphinha and Cancelo being the biggest creators. However, the defensive structure from Barca was very odd, as Xavi had clearly seen the defensive crisis that comes with attacking fullbacks, and for times in the match, the defensive four was Inigo-Frenkie-Kounde-Araujo.
Eventually, Barca’s questions were answered as Joao Felix converted a second, another very good goal set up by Joao Cancelo, and they took the driver’s seat at last. After that, I would have been quite alright with the boring backing-and-forthing usually seen by Xavi’s men. It just couldn’t be that simple, could it? It never is.
For the rest of the second half, it was a brilliant end-to-end style, rarely seen in a Barcelona game, but no goals and great saves were the order of the rest of the day, and despite Porto’s best efforts, their best chance being a series of chances around the goal that resulted in a number of Inaki Pena saves, and an Ilkay Gundogan header back to the Spanish stopper. Pena was definitely one of the surprises of the match, as well as Raphinha’s hunger in the match. In the end, Barca held out for the win. Unless they lose to Antwerp, Shakhtar beat Porto, and there’s a difference of 8 goals in the two games, Barca are 1st in the group. Next, Atleti and Girona.