Barcelona will finish Matchday 4 of the League Phase of this season’s Champions League in 11th place in the standings thanks to a 3-3 draw away to Club Brugge in Belgium on Wednesday night. The Blaugrana had to come back from behind three times to steal a result on the road and their defensive performance was truly grotesque and deserved a defeat, but Lamine Yamal showed his brilliance as the teenager scored once and forced an own goal in the second half to rescue a point for the Catalans.
Reactions & Observations
- Barcelona’s defense has been an issue all season, but that first half was truly embarrassing. Everything was bad, but the defending was almost hard to believe. The way Carlos Forbs got in behind Alejandro Balde and ran past Eric Garcia like he wasn’t even there countless times was absurd, and Brugge’s second goal was truly horrendous from a defensive perspective.
- The attack was pretty good in the opening 45 minutes, until it came to finishing plays. Lamine Yamal was as threatening and creative as we’ve seen this season, Frenkie de Jong was asbolutely everywhere, and Fermín López was feeding his forwards well, but Marcus Rashford was very wasteful and Ferran Torres missed a couple of really good chances despite scoring early.
- Wojciech Szczesny is a great character and personality, but Barça desperately need Joan Garcia to return. It’s impossible to feel safe and secure without him in goal.
- If Rashford truly wants to stay at Barça beyond his loan spell, he needs to care about what he does when the team doesn’t have the ball. His goal contribution numbers are solid, but his laziness when pressing, even when the team is losing and needs his help without the ball, is really frustrating to watch.
- What a spectacular equalizer by Lamine Yamal at the hour mark!!! That was superstar stuff, what a one-two with Fermín and what a cute finish. He’s really special.
- And then the defense collapses again straight from kickoff, almost conceding once before allowing Forbs to get in behind Balde AGAIN to put Brugge back in front. Wow.
- Why is the defensive line so high when you’ve just equalized away from home in the Champions League with a half-hour to go? Why not drop back just a tad, manage the game, and be patient looking for the winner?
- Anthony Taylor with a bad penalty decision, what’s new??? Thank goodness for VAR, because there’s no way that was a penalty in a billion years. That was almost La Liga level refereeing!
- A lucky equalizer at 3-3 win the own goal, but Yamal’s influence was huge again to give his team a chance to win it.
- SZCZESNY, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT????????? He’s VERY lucky to be rescued by VAR, because that was a truly horrible decision to try a skill inside his own area that almost cost Barça three points.
- This is not a good point, at all. Barça had a great chance to get into the Top 8 and are now 11th in the table, and their margin for error in the rest of the League Phase is very, very small. They’ve got Chelsea next, and anything but a win at Stamford Bridge could make life very complicated for Barça.
