A Brace and A Half: Barcelona claim victory over Slavia Prague in match week 7
- therookiereporters
- Jan 26
- 3 min read
Barcelona made a comeback against Slavia Prague to win 4-2, but despite the scoreline, they must compete in the playoffs to get to the round of 16.
Barcelona scraped back a victory against Slavia Prague after a less-than glamorous first half of the game. With complete domination statistically, Barcelona’s brilliance shone through in the second half of the game. With 17 shots, 12 of which on target, 59% possession and 85% pass accuracy over the course of the game, the match should have been theirs from the beginning. However, they went down a goal early on, pulling the score back to 2 a piece before finishing in Barcelona style on 4-2. What should have been an easy win was jeopardised by the Slavic side, making victory difficult for the top Spanish team.
Barcelona was on the back burner from the jump after a goal within 10 minutes from Slavia Prague’s Vasil Kusej. Barcelona did not let this get them down, though, as Fermín López completed a brace for the team within the same half. In the 34th minute, the midfielder scored an equaliser and then put his team back in the lead in the 44th minute. However, the lead wasn’t held long, as Lewandowski took a heavy deflection that left the score all square at the break. The first half was not one Barcelona and look back and be fond of. Their performance was nothing like the high-achieving Spanish team the world expects them to be. The underdogs took centre stage, their low block was making quick work of any attempted attacks or chances Barcelona created.
This stunning performance alone granted Lopez the Man of the Match title. Hansi Flick, the Barcelona manager, spoke to UEFA about how vital this player was for the team:
"Fermín is very important for us, he is dynamic, has intensity, he can score goals and also play the last pass. He's a very important player for us."
Coming into the second-half, Barcelona came into the game with a new flame set under them. They started off the half strong, the ball meeting the back of the net, but it was quickly overturned due to a slim offside by Lewandowski, who was already having an unfortunate game due to his own goal. Things also weren’t looking up for the Spanish side when Pedri was taken off due to injury. However, the substitution ended up being the key to their turnover, as Dani Olmo fired in the 3rd goal for Barcelona. Another substitution was key to victory for The Catalans. Marcus Rashford was brought on and quickly made an impact with Lewandowski, striking home for their 4th goal of the night, securing their victory in Prague. Lewandowski finally made amends for his previous misfortune by scoring in the game, bringing Barcelona to 9th place in the Champions League stage.
Hansi Flick spoke to UEFA about the massive impact his substitutions had on the direction and result of the game:
“This, I think, is the most important thing for a team. I always have 11 players who start the match and five other players who will end the match and can decide it. This happened today, Dani [Olmo] came in and scored to make it 3-2, then Marcus [Rashford] gave the final pass to Robert [Lewandowski].”
Slavia Prague was out of the running for the round of 16, or play-offs, for a very long time. Despite this, the Slavia Prague head coach, Jindřich Trpišovský, spoke fondly to UEFA about their performance in Wednesday night’s game:
“We’re happy that we scored two goals. We played a very solid first half, just the way we wanted. We managed to keep the opponent from creating too many chances and to have dangerous counterattacks.”
Barcelona are fighting for a top 8 finish in the league stages to move onto the round of 16 without the play-offs. As it stands, they will finish 9th, just shy of a secure place. Facing Copenhagen in match week 8, will Barcelona be able to secure a top 8 finish and move on to the round of 16?
Article written by Naeemah Pathan
