Wear and tear takes toll on Koeman & Barça after three extra-times

On an ideal day to calm people down and get back on track after the Supercopa defeat, things couldn't have gone worse for Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman against Cornella (OK, they could have been knocked out).

Barça were taken to extra-time for the third game in just eight days. On top of 270 minutes of normal time, Barça have had to play 90 minutes of additional time over the last week, accentuating the injury and roration problems facing Koeman.

STARTED IN CÓRDOBA

It all started in Cordoba last week. Real Sociedad demanded everything from Barça and the game ended up going to penalties, with a happy ending thanks to Marc-Andre ter Stegen's heroics.

There was less luck in the second extra-time four days later at La Cartuja in Seville. A goal from Villalibre for Athletic Club took the Supercopa to an additional 30 minutes and Iñaki Williams, with a work or art, won the trophy for the Basque side against a grey Barça.

In any case, no one would have expected that a few days later there would be extra-time against third division Cornella -- after 90 minutes in which Barça missed two penalties.

Ramon Juan was on track to be the hero with two saves from Pjanic and Dembele spot kicks in normal time but then Dembele appeared with a rocket in extra-time and Martin Braithwaite sealed the win late on.

It made for a long and tedious encounter. It's been a long week and a lot of minutes have been accumulated by Koeman's small squad ahead of some even more decisive weeks coming up...

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