Time for the bank and Anoeta

1. GOOD START AND END OF THE FIRST HALF

Barça started the game with great authority against a diminished Red Star. Twenty minutes of excellent football orchestrated by Casadó and De Jong, leaving Pedri in front to put together combinations in the final meters. For Raphinha and Lamine, good business. For Lewandowski, perfect.

With Milojevic’s eleven trying to form a great wall to keep Flick’s men out of the area, the first surprise came from a set piece in the 13th minute: Raphinha curled through the middle with his left foot and Iñigo Martínez’s forehead reaches the ball. The goal was well directed to the post that was not covered by Ilic.

It seemed that almost the entire match was being played on the home field when the unexpected happened: Spajic and Djiga dared to clear the defense from the back, they joined Krunic, Kanga and the rest of their teammates, which forced the Blaugrana to stop attacking again and again. Result, disallowed goal and valid goal from Silas (fine chop against Iñaki Peña) to tie it in the 27th minute.

And here is the best of Barça in this first action, because the response is to control the game again, press like at the beginning and attack when Lamine Yamal, Pedri or Raphinha change the pace. Lewandowski solved the problem by taking a left-footed shot that was deflected off the post by the excellent Raphinha. Heading to the locker room to repair the damage from the tie.

2. WITH LEWANDOWSKI

In the second half, the Blaugranas destroyed Red Star in another convincing performance. Unlike the first half, this time the goals ended the game.

Lewandowski himself made 1-3, honoring the hundred crosses put in by Koundé yesterday. Undoubtedly, his best game since his arrival at Barça. With no time to look at the numerator, Raphinha came on and dashed the local team’s faint hopes. The Brazilian has ‘flown’ in this season’s games on the pitch and Pedri is a machine for producing detailed and damaging football. The two were playing close to Lewandowski and for the Polish scorer it was like attacking the area with a knife, pistol and machine gun. Always from football verbiage.

Lamine wanted to go out with a goal but yesterday he had to settle for making legendary goal passes. And here’s the good thing about this great player: he shows no signs of distress. He looked like he had played fourteen hundred games.

3. TIME FOR BENCH and score

Barça’s superiority was so great that it was perfect for Flick to have so many minutes before the final whistle.

He brought the players on the field and the team never let its intensity or hunger down to keep scoring. The fifth was signed by Fermín and although Red Star had the last whim, scoring 2-5 through Milson, the small Maracaná witnessed a show of great football. How strong to see Olmo and the aforementioned Fermín also in Lewandowski territory.

Barça continued to climb the positions but yesterday they won comfortably with Flick already pointing at Anoeta. In Europe there is also talk about this Barça.