In a match that they had to win three times, Barça conquered Dortmund and took a giant step towards reaching the round of 16 of the Champions League. In a match in which they deserved to win and won, Flick’s team was able to get up from each blow in the form of a draw to end up achieving a sensational victory. The goals from Raphinha, who retired injured, and the revulsive Ferran Torres, who found the net twice, were worth gold for the Blaugrana. Yes, the Barcelona team still commits the sins of youth, but after its fifth consecutive victory in the tournament it has catapulted itself among the greats and is second in the standings.
Barcelona played, more like its best version than recently, to win with solvency but Dortmund equaled its first two advantages. With the third he couldn’t and Barça caresses the crosses. It is fair to applaud Flick, who did not hesitate to make changes in the last half hour and to remove heavyweights so that Fermín and, above all, Ferran were capital. The result proves him right.
From the beginning you saw an entire Barcelona. Because even though Dortmund forced a corner in just a handful of seconds, the Blaugrana team was very involved in the match. With a mix of vertical fever and intelligent control, Flick’s team bit without the ball and combined with precision. With the ball he occupied the spaces well, with Olmo distributing play in the midfield, with Balde and Koundé joyfully going up the wing, with Lamine filtering passes and finishing plays and with Pedri applying the pause.
The first twenty minutes of Barcelona were very promising. The goal was chewed but it didn’t arrive. He didn’t do it in a cross from Bucket that neither Olmo nor Lewandowski were able to deflect by a hair. Not even on a Lamine Yamal service that Raphinha couldn’t finish. Not even on a very clear occasion for the Brazilian, who sent away an L2 assist from Lamine with the outside. Not even in three attempts by the Rocafonda winger, who collided with the goalkeeper in the most crystalline way. Not even in a sneaky shot by Koundé, disheveled in attack.
Barça had done almost everything to advance, except the most important thing, hitting the target. Of course, in his area Iñaki Peña barely had to intervene with his hands because Borussia did not generate much and fell offside. Only Duranville caused problems for Balde on the right side of the German attack. Sabitzer sent his cross up with almost everything in his favor. The best of those in the Rühr basin, to name a few, was the good goalkeeper Kobel and that said a lot about Barça’s collective play, pushed by 3,500 fans who also made themselves heard.
After the scenery and choreography of the yellow wall, the well-known and packed stands of the Signal Iduna Park, had arrived the unfinished symphony of a Barça that was somewhat discouraged by not obtaining the goal prize and that arrived at half-time more blurred but without stress.
Barça gives its final blow after seeing how Dortmund equals its first two goals
Flick’s plan to bet on the gala eleven, that is, the same ones that were at the Villamarín from the start, had at times recovered the intense and synchronized Barça from their big week against Bayern and Real Madrid, but it remained to be known if the Having forgiven him would later take its toll. In a competition as treacherous as the Champions League, and even more so at home, wasting your moments can be very expensive. He didn’t do it. He had to suffer but Barcelona pulled it off.
Because at the same time that the cold intensified and when Borussia seemed to emerge, with more ball and ideas, Olmo connected in depth with Raphinha so that the Brazilian stood alone against Kobel and beat him with a cross shot. Once again the captain Raphinha was decisive, after avoiding the offside by millimeters. Flick’s team was ahead. The yellow wall was silenced for seconds. The Blaugrana parish celebrated. But the joy would last little because the tie would come. He did it stupidly. Cubarsi committed an absurd penalty by putting his hand on Guirassy’s back. The same striker would convert it, in Dortmund’s first shot between the sticks in the entire match.
Flick’s pulse does not tremble to remove heavyweights and the shocks respond to him
The stadium was resurrected, Borussia grew. Time to show mettle and maturity for Barça, given that in the previous games they had also let advantages slip away on the scoreboard. Having squeezed the starting eleven, Flick understood that fresh legs were needed and his pulse did not tremble. Again Lewandowski, the weakest of the team, and Olmo out, like in Seville. Before leaving, the one from Terrassa wasted a very good opportunity in which he ran into Kobel. Raphinha also left, in this case due to the aforementioned physical problems.
This time the substitutes responded to Flick because his Barça moved forward again with the relays as protagonists. Koundé crossed, Fermín finished in the heart of the area and the goalkeeper’s rebound was caught by Ferran Torres to score. The Andalusian and the Valencian had just entered, like De Jong.
But again Barça would not be able to maintain the income. The former Girona player Couto activated Gross, who entered from the second line and served the goal on a plate for Guirassy’s double. Borussia had repeated the formula of Celta and Betis to break the offside.
They looked rough but Sahin’s team grew so much that Barça dealt him the third blow in a lethal counterattack led by Pedri and continued by a brilliant Lamine that left Ferran alone in front of the goalkeeper. The forward, with time and quality, crossed the shot into the net for his second goal of the night. Would Barça be able to maintain the victory this time? The answer was yes. The Barcelona team already glimpses the round of 16. What a night.
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