Ronald Koeman, it’s time for your 45-second phone call.
After an embarrassingly limp (zero shots on target) 3-0 defeat to Bayern Munich at the Camp Nou to begin Champions League play, Barcelona played even worse on Wednesday night during a 3-0 defeat to Benfica in Lisbon (one shot on target!).
Barcelona volvió a ganar después de cuatro partidos llenos de tormento. Fue una victoria cómoda sobre el Levante (3-0) y que sirvió para celebrar el retorno goleador del jovencísimo Ansu Fati, el llamado a ser el heredero de Lionel Messi, quien hoy camina los céspedes de la Ligue1 con la camiseta del PSG.
Fati ingresó al campo en los últimos 10 minutos y con el número 10 en la espalda, dando por superada una lasceración meniscal que lo obligó a varias cirugías y 322 días de recuperación.
BARCELONA - Goals from Memphis Depay, Luuk de Jong and the returning Ansu Fati helped Barcelona claim a much-needed 3-0 home victory over Levante in LaLiga on Sunday.
The victory, Barça's first in their last four games in all competitions, moved the Catalans up to fifth in the table with 12 points from six games, five behind league leaders Real Madrid, who have played one more.
The 18-year-old Fati, who came on as an 81st-minute substitute before scoring Barça's third goal, was making his first appearance since suffering a serious knee injury last November.
Mauricio Pochettino is in the headlines after he made the bold decision to substitute Lionel Messi during Paris Saint-Germain’s tight 2-1 victory against Lyon on Sunday. How many times has Messi been subbed you might ask? Almost never.
With the scored tied at 1-1 Pochettino felt that taking Messi out of the game would help his side.
Messi after being subbed off pic.twitter.com/AxIE7EmhC4
El camino de espinas del Barcelona continúa. Si bien la salida de Lionel Messi había logrado ser disimulada en el arranque de LaLiga, el equipo volvió a demostrar la falta de clase y la fragilidad mental que lo ha caracterizado durante la era de Ronald Koeman en el inicio de la Champions League.
Y la cara de Jordi Alba, reemplazado por una lesión, resume la desesperanza de un club que parece una estrella que se apaga lentamente y que suplica por el fin de su sufrimiento.
Ronald Koeman might be right that Barcelona could still cobble together a league challenge, but Barça hasn’t been this far from competing for Europe’s ultimate club prize since it played in the Europa League (the same season a 16-year-old Cesc Fàbregas left La Masia for Arsenal).
Exactly 13 months after Barcelona suffered ultimate humiliation at the hands of Bayern Munich, the Blaugrana welcomed Die Roten to the Camp Nou to open Group E play in the Champions League. Based solely on scores, Barcelona improved by three goals, but it looked so much worse in doing so. At one point, Serge Gnabry took pity on his defender and kicked the ball out of bounds.
The USMNT injury updates include a mixed batch of good and bad news.
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel gave a Christian Pulisic injury update after the American forward suffered a knock to the ankle during the USMNT’s 4-1 victory against Honduras. Good news U.S. and Chelsea fans, Pulisic will only be out for 10 days.
“For Christian, unfortunately he came yesterday on crutches and he has an ankle injury with about 10 days," Tuchel said.