More defensive errors require a Barca tour de force

More defensive errors require a Barca tour de force

Lluís Mascaró

Director de Información Deportiva de Prensa Ibérica

| sport

Barcelona have gone nearly two years since lifting a trophy. April 27, 2019. That night, they lifted their 26th league title with a 1-0 win over Levante. Messi scored it, of course. Nearly 21 and a half months have passed. 655 days. And since then, things have been bad, or worse. Both for Barca and the world. Life before the pandemic was happier for everyone. Especially for Cules. They have seen their team fading at the same time as a triple crisis, sporting, economic and institutional, makes it all worse. That 2018-19 title was the second of Valverde. They won it three weeks before time, having lost just two games out of 35. Nothing could have told of what was to follow, although there were clear symptoms of weakness in the defeats by Roma and Liverpool in Europe. The Copa KO by Valencia a month later was the start of the end, an agony that is not yet over.

The Barca that Koeman is constructing has too many grave weaknesses to be a champion side. They grow with epic wins but get set back like by Sevilla last night. 

New errors at the back cost them big. Umtiti was to blame and at the other end Bono soured Messi’s night with several saves. Barca are getting used to comebacks and they have to show that at Camp Nou if they want their first title in two years. Hard. But not impossible.

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