FC Barcelona faced AS Monaco just before the start of the season. In August, they surprisingly lost 0:3 to their rivals and for the first time in 12 years did not win the Gamper Cup. On Thursday football players Hansi Flicka went out motivated to get revenge on the French team. The importance of this match was completely different – although it was a match from the 1st round, the Champions League is definitely more prestigious.
And the very beginning of the match showed that it would be hellishly difficult to get revenge. Because from the 10th minute Barcelona played with a reduced number of players – Eric Garcia was shown a red card. What's more, six minutes later Monaco took the lead after a great shot by Maghnes Akliouche. Less than fifteen minutes later Lamine Yamal reminded us of his genius. He showed off an effective move and equalized. In the second half Barcelona still had problems, which in the 71st minute George Ilenikhena took advantage of and scored a goal for 2:1. This was also the result of the match.
Barcelona goalkeeper's nightmare match. Experts are merciless
After the match, the experts were left in no doubt as to who the anti-hero of the clash was. It was not Eric Garcia, who weakened the team significantly, but Marc-Andre ter Stegen. Why?
Because it was he who provoked his colleague into such a radical action. He sent a terrible pass, which was immediately intercepted by his opponent and Garcia had to save the situation. And although he did it clumsily, he prevented the conceding of a goal in the 10th minute.
“Ter Stegen got Eric Garcia a red card. Bravo,” assessed Jakub Seweryn from Sport.pl. “Play Inigo, play Balde, no, the ball went to the guy who had solid care even before the pass,” he added.
The German goalkeeper also failed to show off when conceding the second goal, which the journalist also noted. 'Ter Stegen is in 'I'll do something else' mode today,' he joked.
“Ter Stegen had a lot of options, but he chose the worst one…”, “Ter Stegen today looks like he's playing his first match in the Champions League” – Kamil Gieroba from pilkarskiswiat.com assessed directly.
“What a crime by ter Stegen. Once again the German turned out to be a saboteur. At the moment the weakest player Barcelona this season” – wrote Mateusz Dukat from futbolnews.pl.
“Ter Stegen should have gone back to Barcelona on foot for such a pass, since he had a few other options for a few seconds. That red card for Eric Garcia was 90% his doing. I don't understand how someone can play at SUCH a level and do SUCH things,” marveled Mariusz Bielski from the Sport Channel.
Here is the winner from the Barcelona team
So Ter Stegen was the obvious anti-hero of the match. As befits the experts, they also chose the player who stood out on the pitch and performed the best of the Barcelona players in the match. It was, of course, Lamine Yamal.
“Lamine is a genius,” wrote Marcin Gazda from Eleven Sports.
“If you are afraid, go to Yamal…” – emphasized Gieroba.
“The positives include Yamal's flash of genius, Casado's play, Fati's return, his fighting spirit and a few moments of danger even with game in 10 for most of the match. However, one thing interests me – who would you like to see in the GK role? I throw out the word OKOŃ, meaning SIMON,” Gazda added.
“There's no point in tearing up. If you do such hara-kiri in a match like this, it's hard to get a good result. The opponent is well-organized, plays very intensely and is clearly in good shape. For 80 minutes with ten players, you're asking for drama. And there are a lot of matches,” emphasized Kuba Seweryn.
Barcelona will play their next Champions League match on Tuesday, October 1st. Their opponent will be Young Boys.