Seven Chileans, two Spaniards, a Honduran, a Cuban and two “guiris” watch a Barcelona game in a bar north of Madrid. Judging by that mixture of anger and silence that occurs when rival goals fall, they are all culés. One of the South Americans even boasts of having worked on the works in the museums of the old Camp Nou, where the titles of Guardiola’s Sextete or Messi’s Ballons d’Or were located. But even that is no consolation: in a matter of four days his blaugranas They have lost their way with two consecutive defeats.
Not everyone takes the bump in the same way. Some blame the referees, others the injuries, others the players, others the coach and others simply bad luck, the fronts that most commonly open in football debates. The curious thing, in this case, is that each one has his share of reason.
Last week, against Atlético de Madrid in the Copa del Rey, the VAR disallowed the Catalans’ goal after an exhaustive offside review that lasted around eight minutes! That refereeing decision frustrated any possibility of a reaction from Barça, which had already fallen 4-0 in the first leg of the semifinals.
This Monday, again the VAR played a trick on them without even intervening in a very clear foul prior to Girona’s decisive goal, which took advantage of the favor to hand the Catalans their second defeat in four days. Even Claudio Echeverri, author of the infraction, acknowledged that the referee had forgiven him for a flagrant stomp.
The sensations in Can Barça are not positive with this issue, in fact, on Saturday sent a formal complaint to the Spanish football authorities to “denounce the lack of unification of refereeing criteria.” Real Madrid did something similar last year and many clubs criticized their position, although later almost all of them have aligned themselves in the complaints.
For Barcelona, the controversial decisions of the referees generate more noise around the team, which in recent weeks has suffered the absence of essential players due to injuries. Pedri, driving force and brain of the eleven, has not taken to the pitch for almost a month, while Rashford and Raphinha, revulsive by nature, have also missed several games.
In particular, the Brazilian’s absences have been disastrous due to what he contributes both in offensive volume and leadership. Raphinha acts as captain on and off the field and, when he is not there, the squad slows down. To have an idea, of the 19 games in which he had started until this Monday, Barcelona had 17 victories, but had lost six in the 19 in which he had not been. The statistics are misleading, but in this case they do not make it clear the leading role of the South American within the team.
All these setbacks have caused a small collapse in the Catalans’ game, now less intense in the first line of pressure and without as much light in creation and generation. In addition, rivals have taken the measure of their advanced defense, constantly exposed in setbacks and defensive transitions.
Crowns in the air
In the same bar in the north of Madrid, around midnight, all the culé fans drown their sorrows in alcohol. Then a Romanian and Real Madrid fan, a regular at the house, bursts into the room, orders a glass of whiskey and sits in the last chair at the bar to watch the Catalan wake. However, far from making firewood from the fallen tree, it released an unexpected balm.
“Who do you think is going to beat you in the end?” asked the Romanian, who, far from gloating in the misfortunes of his rivals, questions the ability of the other teams to dethrone Barça in the decisive moments of the season. He is not without reason, because neither Real Madrid nor Atleti have proven to be reliable or stable enough to make that definitive move.
Right now, the meringues have 60 points (their third highest historical score after the first 24 rounds) and have two points ahead of the Catalans in the general table, but their reliability is still very questionable. After the dismissal of Xabi Alonso and the arrival of Álvaro Arbeloa to the bench, Madrid has shown no signs of progression in its game, which continues to be predictable and very dependent on the sparks of its stars.
The minimum difference with 14 days remaining and with a pending visit to the Camp Nou does not guarantee in any way the surprise of the whites to the Blaugrana throne.
The same thing happens with Atlético, who cannot sleep peacefully ahead of the second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-finals, even with four goals ahead. At the beginning of March, the colchoneros will travel to Barcelona to finish the tie, but their recent league setbacks (vs. Betis and Rayo) also call into question their reliability.
Furthermore, there are reasons to believe that Barça can reverse its current situation with its own resources. In fact, today in Spain there is not a squad with so many individual and collective variants to recover the lost ground and reign again, both in La Liga and in the Cup. The question is to recognize the failures, work on them and re-engage all the personnel at their highest level.
“Now we have to lower our heads, do self-criticism, improve and think about ourselves,” said this Monday Pau Cubarsí, a boy of only 18 years who leads the culé defense with very clear ideas.
Gerard Martín, another youth player who has assumed honors, supports the speech: “There are decisions that we do not control. We have to concentrate on what we can do and do it 100% well.”
These statements by two young people in the midst of the crisis are a strong message to Barcelona fans: there is no point in taking refuge in excuses or conspiracy theories, the only way out is to work, exploit their arsenal to the maximum and cover mouths on the field. There they have been much better than their challengers for quite some time.
