Barca dominates Juventus beating the team that eliminated the Catalan side last year 3-0. Messi looked world class again scoring twice of quick give and go play like the Barcelona of the start of the decade. The team looked like the Barca of old having an excruciating amount of possession and creating interchanging plays that are hard to stop. The addition of Dembele into the starting lineup also brought back the spacing that was lost with the Departure of Neymar. The heavily compact attacking style seen in the first couple La Liga games was no more and finally, you can Barcelona passing into space creating chances out of quick passes. You finally see the pace of this team again something that was impossible to notice in the Super Cup against Real Madrid.
Ousmane Dembélé was key in Barca’s performance, linking up well with the team in his first start. (Image: Getty Images)
Barca dominates Juventus beating the team that eliminated the Catalan side last year 3-0. Messi looked world class again scoring twice off of quick give and go plays like the Barcelona of the start of the decade. The team looked like the Barca of old having an excruciating amount of possession and creating interchanging plays that are hard to stop. The addition of Dembele into the starting lineup also brought back the spacing that was lost With the Departure of Neymar. The heavily compact attacking style seen in the first couple of La Liga games was no more and finally, you can Barcelona passing into space creating chances out of quick passes. You finally see the pace of this team again, something that was impossible to notice in the Super Cup against Real Madrid.
To many Barca had the worst summer of the club’s recent history, losing Neymar and failing to get any more transfers in on transfer deadline day. Yet, to start the year the team is undefeated in league play and created a quick four point gap in La Liga from Real Madrid and completely outclassed an opponent that was above them a couple of months ago. They responded perfectly to pressure put on the team.
Barcelona still has one of the best starting 11 in the whole world, proving it last Tuesday against Juve. Now the test will be if Barcelona can maintain this. The bench still has yet to prove themselves leaving the team susceptible to an injury dragging the level of play back. Still, the most important and probably surprising aspect of Barca’s performance was the clean sheet and how strong they looked at the back against an elite team. We expect them to score goals but no one expected Barcelona to still not concede a goal. After Madrid scored five in two games Barcelona has gone 450 minutes without conceding.
Helping Barcelona’s mentality, even more, is the struggles their main rivals Real Madrid are having to start the season, who dropped four points already in league play. The team that many fans thought was completely out reach all of sudden is behind them on the table with a tougher group in Champions League.
The play is back and lead is theirs, the board may still be facing pressure but it seems the huge crisis to start the year is all but gone in a couple weeks. Barcelona now looks back in form and one of the favorites to win the champions league. Back in April they couldn’t score in 180 minutes versus Juventus and conceded three. Now they stream rolled Juventus with ease.
Here are the highlights from back in April
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyxAEyvz1vs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzEmg0EFWyQ
Then notice the difference with the performance on Tuesday. It’s hard to believe that this is the team the people were believing in a crisis. So many people believe the team is weaker than last year but the first real comparison we have the team looked in controlled and creating chance after chance. The performance felt like a time machine and witnessing the Barcelona from that won two out of three champions leagues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCm01TiRKQQ
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