Madrid (AFP)
Barcelona hopes to continue its attacking performances led by its Polish top scorer Robert Lewandowski, when it hosts the last-placed Cadiz in the fifth stage of the Spanish Football Championship, while Real Madrid begins a period of several weeks in the absence of its top scorer and international captain Karim Benzema, who is injured.
After being tied negatively in the first phase of the current season, Barcelona hit hard in the following four matches in all competitions, scoring 16 goals, half of which were signed by Lewandowski, including 5 goals in the local league, and a hat-trick against Viktoria Plzen, at the start of his team’s Champions League campaign.
With this triple, Lewandowski became the first player to score a hat-trick in the Champions League with three different teams, “Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, the former Germans”.
Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez praised him, saying, “I don’t know if he is the best striker in Europe, but for us he is the best.”
He added, “He makes the team better, helps us build attacks, puts pressure on the ball carrier and brings many solutions in the attack line. He is a full-fledged player and we are proud to have him with us.”
Lewandowski, 34, joined the Catalan team from Bayern Munich for 45 million euros, and Xavi commented on this, saying, “We never doubted Robert’s capabilities in terms of price or age. He is an amazing player who has a winning philosophy and is wonderful with his colleagues.”
He also praised French international winger Osman Dembele, who is brilliant this season, saying, “He is at the level of Brazilian Neymar when he was the last in the ranks of Barcelona, few players like him, he suffered many injuries in the past seasons, and therefore I am happy for him now.”
Cadiz may be an easy victim for Lewandowski to increase his yield of goals, especially since he lost his four matches so far domestically and did not score any goal.
Xavi may resort to resting some of the first-tier players, especially as he faces a difficult test against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena next week in the second round of the Champions League.
On the other hand, Real Madrid, the defending champion last season, who made a perfect start with four consecutive victories, begins a period of time in the absence of Benzema, who is strongly nominated to win the Golden Ball for the best player for 2022, due to a muscle injury he suffered during his team’s wide victory over Scottish Celtic 3-0 In the latter’s home, and will keep him out of the stadiums until the end of this month.
The responsibility for scoring the goals will rest with the Brazilian duo Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo and the Belgian winger Eden Hazard.
Vinicius, who scored the only goal for his team against Liverpool when he was crowned European champions last season, scored 4 goals in his team’s last four games and commented on this by saying, “I hope to become a legend in this club.”
“I can stay here for a long time and enter records, as Karim Benzema, Toni Kroos and Luka Modric did before me,” he added.
And whether he considers himself among the best players in the world now, he replied, “I leave this answer to others, I feel that I am in the right place at the moment, but I maintain my humility and calmness.”
Atletico Madrid’s French striker Antoine Griezmann has been limited to playing the reserve role in all his team’s matches since the beginning of the current season, and Griezmann succeeded in giving his team a valuable victory at the start of his continental campaign in the Champions League, when he scored the winning goal against Porto 2-1 in the minute 101, and Griezmann’s third goal in 138 minutes this season.
And about the number of minutes that Argentine coach Diego Simeone gives him, the French World Cup winner replied, “You have to ask the coach, I’m here to do my job, all I can do is participate and make the difference.”
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