‘He has something special’ – Ansu Fati the key for Barcelona but should Ousmane Dembele have seen red?
Published 22/08/2022 at 13:18 GMT
After Barcelona’s thrilling 4-1 victory over Real Sociedad on Sunday evening, Pete Sharland gets in touch with Jorge Ordas from Eurosport Spain to talk about the performance from Xavi Hernandez’s side. Who was the player who stood out? What did he make of Jordi Alba getting dropped? And should French forward Ousmane Dembele have seen red in the first half of the game?
'We had to be brave' - Xavi on what Barca needed to beat Real Sociedad
Barcelona are back. Well sort of. On Sunday evening Xavi Hernandez and his team went up to Anoeta and beat Real Sociedad 4-1 for their first victory of the season.
It was a return to form for Barcelona after they were held 0-0 in their first game of the season last weekend at home to Rayo Vallecano, where they were left frustrated by a glut of missed chances.
There was no such wastefulness on Sunday as Robert Lewandowski opened the scoring within the first minute.
Although Real Sociedad equalised and battled bravely they were undone by a trio of second-half goals as Barca got their season back on track.
It allowed them to keep pace with rivals Real Madrid, who also won 4-1 on Saturday in their first game without Casemiro, with Carlo Ancelotti’s side going strong with two wins from two thus far.
In order to find out more about the reaction to the game we got in touch with Jorge Ordas from Eurosport Spain.
Ansu the star
So what was the general reaction to the game? There was certainly a lot of schadenfreude last weekend when Barca couldn’t get past Rayo despite all the millions they had spent, especially with Jules Kounde still unable to be registered. This performance looked a lot more like what people expected when they saw Barca’s aggressive spending in the window.
“The reaction after yesterday's game is that Barcelona can become a great team if they manage to fit the pieces together on a consistent basis,” says Ordas.
“The draw against Rayo Vallecano was an accident but, by the names in the squad alone, the team should be winning in a convincing fashion on a regular basis, as we saw against Real Sociedad.”
So what about who stood out? Lewandowski getting his first two goals for his new club was certainly an exciting moment for the fans. But it was Ansu Fati coming off the bench who really caught our eyes. Does Ordas agree?
“Yes, Lewandowski's two goals monopolised many front pages here in Spain, but his goalscoring prowess is something that we knew already.
The return of Ansu Fati, however, is much more prominent.
“Because of how much is expected of him (both by Barcelona and the national team) and because of how quickly he assisted (twice) and scored.
“If the injuries can finally be behind him, we will eventually talk about him as a true legendary player.”
We pushed Ordas for what makes Fati so special as a player.
“He has something special, a honeymoon relationship with the goal that greats like Raul Gonzalez or Lionel Messi have had.
“His eruption could be a plus for this Barcelona, since some have doubted whether he could recover 100% [from injury] and be the player that actually fulfilled his promise. This is a great start.”
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Ansu Fati, Real Sociedad-Barcellona, Getty Images
Image credit: Getty Images
Alba dropped a ‘big surprise’
One of the big talking points came before the game, when the teams were announced and Jordi Alba, one of Barca’s four captains, was out of the starting line-up.
It was reported that there was no injury for Alba and it was a tactical decision from Xavi to go with 18-year-old La Masia product Alejandro Balde. The decision looked to pay off pretty much straight away as it was his assist for Lewandowski’s blistering opener.
“Starting Balde over Alba was a big surprise,” says Ordas. “Of course it can be brushed aside as nothing more than a tactical decision.
“But, behind it, there is a gesture that did not sit well with the club. After the draw against Rayo, some images of the totally apathetic players were leaked in the locker room and tunnel.
“In recent times, the attitude of the big players such as Alba, Piqué or Sergi Roberto are being questioned a lot.”
Could Dembele have seen red?
That’s something to keep an eye on. One thing that the VAR room decided didn’t need to be watched was an incident involving Ousmane Dembele and Sociedad’s left-back Aihen Munoz.
In an off the ball incident in the first-half Dembele appeared to catch Munoz with a stray arm.
The VAR decided not to review it and Munoz clearly bore no ill-will towards the Frenchman, but some fans felt it should have been a red card. What did Ordas make of it?
“Without a doubt it is one of the plays that decides the game,” Ordas replies. “Perhaps, if he had been sent off, we would not have had to talk about the previous questions you asked (or we would have talked about a very different result).
“On the same day, Atletico Madrid right-back Nahuel Molina was expelled for a similar or even lesser gesture, so it is necessary for the federation to clarify the criteria.”
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