FC Barcelona lost 1:2 to AS Monaco in the first round of the Champions League league phase. The only goal for Hansi Flick's team was scored by Lamine Yamal. From the 11th minute, Barcelona played with “ten men” after Eric Garcia fouled Takumi Minamino near his own penalty area. However, it all started with a bad pass from Marc-Andre ter Stegen. “Ter Stegen was pushing Barcelona towards the abyss, and Yamal was trying to save them. In this situation, he had no right to play against him. It is difficult to explain this in any other way than a momentary eclipse” – Dawid Szymczak from Sport.pl wrote.
Robert Lewandowski doesn't have a good match behind him. The Pole was in the starting line-up for Barcelona, played 80 minutes and was one of the victims of Barcelona playing one player less for most of the match. “Lewandowski was the biggest victim of ter Stegen's mistake. Barcelona's game changed – they fought but had problems creating chances, they played far from Monaco's goal. The Pole couldn't count on the service of Yamal or Raphinha, who created chances for him in previous matches,” Szymczak adds in his text.
– We worked well in defense and Robert contributed to that. It wasn't an easy match for him, also with the ball, because (after the red card – editor's note) we changed the formation in attack to 4-4-1. He was lonely and it was hard for him to keep the ball. But despite everything, I think he played a really good match – said Hansi Flick, referring to Lewandowski's performance in an interview for Canal+ Sport.
“What Ter Stegen did is worse.” What words for the Barcelona captain
Ter Stegen decided to address the eleventh-minute mistake in an interview with Spanish television Movistar. “I didn't understand Eric. I feel sorry for him because I know that this situation affected him. It shouldn't have happened to us, but that's football. Despite this, we managed to get back up, we wanted to get at least a point. In the end, we lost by one goal and we don't feel good about it. We tried to close the zones and defended really well for a long time, not allowing our rivals to do much. Our goal was to win and we have to win as soon as possible,” commented the Barcelona goalkeeper.
Spanish journalist Alfredo Martinez decided to criticize the Barcelona goalkeeper. “What Ter Stegen did, blaming his teammates, is worse than what he did on the pitch,” said the Spaniard, referring to the fact that Ter Stegen is the captain of Barcelona and should have approached the situation slightly differently.
Barcelona fans also did not spare harsh words towards the German goalkeeper. “This clown is still the first captain and main goalkeeper”, “he is impudent”, “he really said it was Eric's fault”, “he is still at the club despite so many mistakes”, “he should not be our captain” – we read on the X portal.