Celta Vigo 2 Barcelona 4
Lewandowski has still got it. Throughout this season all the talk for Barcelona has been who is replacing Robert Lewandowski next season, whilst this is still a priority for next season the focus has to be keeping him fit for the rest of the season as the difference between Lewandowski and Ferran Torres is massive as we seen this game with Lewandowski scoring a hat-trick in his first start back from injury. Even at 37 years of age he is still ultra reliable when it comes to scoring for this Barcelona team.
Rashford is showing is worth to Hansi Flick. Throughout this stint at Barcelona there have been a number of articles suggesting that Hansi Flick is unhappy with Rashford’s work-rate and that Barcelona were unhappy with his performances so far but I think this is highly exaggerated especially by the press in England who have this fixation with tearing Rashford down any chance they get. For me this performance against Celta Vigo was Rashford at his best when it comes to playmaking, assisting 3 out of the 4 goals with the first being a delightful cross into the box for Lewandowski to score. Rashford’s playmaking ability is underrated and we are seeing it come to light for Barcelona so far this season.
Barca’s defensive woes continue. It’s not ground breaking to say that Barcelona have been disastrous this season defensively, it’s only gotten worse with the absence of Joan Garcia with Szczesny failing to impress so far this year. I don’t think Barcelona realised how important Inigo Martinez was to Hansi Flick’s system and with Kounde and Cubarsi out of form it doesn’t look like improving any time soon. The first Celta Vigo goal is one we’ve seen far too often this year with one ball over the top setting a player straight through on goal for a 1 v 1 with the goalkeeper, although we saw this at times last season it wasn’t every match multiple times a game, can Barcelona win the Champions League playing like this?
Lamine Yamal is back to his best. It’s been interesting to watch Lamine Yamal this season so far, in my opinion he’s been playing quite selfishly so far this year which has been a complete contrast to last year where his assist numbers where more than anyone else. However, these last two games against Club Brugge and Celta Vigo have been Yamal back to his brilliant best. The finish on his right foot for his goal was brilliant and he continued to torture the Celta full-back throughout the game. Hopefully for Barcelona’s sake he can keep up his form as when he’s at his best, there isn’t many better in the world.
The La Liga title is far from over. After El Clasico a couple of weeks ago many thought that Real Madrid may run away with the title especially with the form Kylian Mbappe was in but both teams have issues. Madrid earlier playing out a goalless draw to Rayo Vallecano will be worrying especially not scoring in their last 2 games including losing to Liverpool. It will be interesting to see which team can put a run of form together that might end up winning the league in Spain this year.