He Flick’s Barça has an idea and is going to die with it, for better or worse, and when the rival, Borussia Dortmund, bets on the same, the result is a dizzying match, open, with spaces, vibrant, in which you expose yourself the same as the opponent, in which everything is possible. This time the one who ruled the madness was the Spanish team, which had to win the match three times and he ended up doing it with a double from Ferran Torres, a fantastic substitute for Lewandowski during the last week. The victory leaves the Catalans one step away from direct qualification for the round of 16 of the Champions League, without having to go through a play-off that aims to be extremely dangerous.
The Borussia players have the impetus of their stands, the yellow wall that cheers until you lose your breath. And the footballers respond by offering a brave and intense proposal. In goal kicks, for example, the attackers stand at the edge of the area as if they were athletes waiting for the starting shot, which was for Iñaki Peña to put the ball into play short, to sprint to press. Barcelona, as I said, is looking for the same thing and it was soon seen that it was going to be a duel of many revolutions, a day so that Marc Casadó had to multiply in the recovery, also Pedri in this position in which he now plays in the double pivot. One team lost the ball, but they recovered it quickly, I lost it again… The French referee François Letexier joined the party, allowing pushes and contacts without interrupting the game.
At times Barcelona tried to dominate with the ball, especially in the first half, but the match tended towards chaos. With the two defenses forward, with the 20 players, all except the goalkeepers, in little space, looking for unchecks was a candy that Raphinha tried to savorbut his teammates were not so clear when it came to passing the ball to him. Yes, Lamine Yamal did it with the now classic, and spectacular, outside pass that the Brazilian threw out. The rest of the times, the captain regretted because they didn’t look for him. He got extremely angry, and being angry you can’t play. His time would come. Borussia offered the Duranville speedwho gave Balde a hard time every time he had to face him and who starred in an individual play that Sabitzer narrowly missed. In the first minutes the Spanish team had greater clarity, with the attempts of Lewandowski, Koundé and Lamine, the latter stopped by Kobel, and in the second section until the break it was Borussia who managed to overcome the pressure better and threaten Iñaki’s goal Peña, when they also overcome the offside situation, a trap they fell into on several occasions.
In the first action of the second half, precisely that happened: Guirassy scored, but at the beginning of the action there was an illegal position. Barcelona is at its limit, like the entire season. But Dortmund was at the limit, and this time, the clearest, Raphinha finally ran for the ball and resolved. It was like a bugle call, because the duel did not stop until the end. Letexier did see a penalty when Cubarsi pushed Guirassywhich he himself transformed.
Flick did not want to change the plan and that is why he needed fresh legs like Fermín, Ferran and De Jong, even if those replaced were Raphinha, Lewandowski and Dani Olmo. What was missing was the appearance of Lamine Yamal, who had switched off and was activated to partner with Koundé and Ferran scored his first goal. But in an error in the start of Iñigo Martínez, Yan Couto, released, was able to find the pass that broke the offside and with which Guirassy achieved his double. The forward scored two and let another couple escape in that round trip in which Pedri found a space to mount the final counterattackwhich Lamine completed with an assist for Ferran. This third advantage was maintained by Barça. Dortmund had not lost at home in the Champions League since 2021.