“Barcelona” returned to the classics

Barcelona won the first trophy under coach Xavi in ​​style. In the final of the Spanish Super Cup, she dealt with her main rival Real Madrid – 3: 1, forcing him to look even a little ridiculous against her background. The hero of the meeting was Gavi, who scored one of the goals himself, and in two more cases assisted the partners.

Another Spanish El Clasico, which this time took place in Saudi Arabia, which has hosted the Super Bowl since 2000, served as the publication Marca a reason to announce a “alarm signal” for Real Madrid. The experts of the publication had in mind that what happened to the Madrid players was insanely like a continuation of an unpleasant trend. A week ago, they lost in the championship to Villarreal, in the semi-final match of the Super Cup, somehow, on penalties, they defeated the rather modestly holding now Valencia, and in the final they showed a game that was simply terrible in every sense.

In order for a person who has not seen her to get an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe salt of the match, it is enough for him to know a few remarkable nuances. For example, that many media resources, in search of which of the Madrid players to still praise, did not hesitate to opt for goalkeeper Thibault Courtois. He conceded three goals, but the number of episodes in which Courtois Real bailed out is huge. He beat off dead shots from Robert Lewandowski and Ousmane Dembele, he took the lead in time, disrupting one-on-one exits. If not for the flair of the goalkeeper, not for his long arms and legs, the score could well have been simply shameful for Madrid.

A characteristic of the ardor and potential of Real Madrid in attack is the fact that he managed to deliver the first shot on target when almost 70 minutes of playing time were left behind, that is, in the middle of the second half.

And this despite the fact that after the break, the Madrid team, who were losing 0:2, in theory, had to rush forward headlong and press, press, press. But they looked as timid as outsiders look who cherish a wildly mined stock. Real Madrid’s only goal, Karim Benzema, scored in the end, when Barcelona, ​​with its giant lead, could afford to relax.

But the Madrid defense was, after all, even worse than the Madrid attack, even despite the tilt towards caution. She constantly made mistakes, sometimes such that it is impossible to imagine in the performance of a grandee, as in the episode with the first Barcelona ball, which led to a sawn-off shot from Antonio Rüdiger. She constantly yawned other people’s counterattacks.

However, such an approach, with an emphasis on Madrid, of course, although it does not contradict reality, still slightly inaccurately reflects it, because the final of the Super Bowl, it seems, was not only an alarm signal for the giant who lost it, but also an anthem for the winner class. Xavi, a former Barcelona legend turned coach, headed the club at the end of 2021, when it was still going through the deepest crisis. The fact that the decision to entrust the return of the team’s former strength to him, a mentor with meager experience, turned out to be correct, they said last season, observing undoubted positive signs.

In the current season, after Barcelona strengthened by a group of chic footballers led by Lewandowski and entrenched themselves at the top of the national championship table (albeit for the time being the advantage over Real Madrid and a meager three points), they have become even more noticeable.

And the decisive match of the Super Cup, apparently, finally convinced that the Catalans are following the right course, even stubborn skeptics.

Their football was good, first of all, for its extreme harmony. There was a place for both control of the ball and the stretches with the refusal of it, when Barcelona felt that in order to bite hard, it was more convenient to lure Real into their own half. He was exclusively team, this football, but at the same time presented a too obvious hero.

The hero was Gavi, an 18-year-old player who managed to consistently find the ball where danger was ripe, who opened the scoring, and then gave two assists from the flank to Lewandowski and Pedri. He also deserved a whole little speech from Javi. In it, the coach called his young football player “pure passion”, warning that he simply does not have a “ceiling of possibilities”.

Alexey Dospekhov