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Barcelona and Athletic Club faced each other last night at the King Abdullah Sports City in Saudi Arabia in the first semifinal of the tournament Spanish Super Cupand Hansi Flick’s team took the victory quite convincingly.
The manager presented his best available team that night, even Lamine Yamal returned from injury, Raphinha appeared for the first time after the Christmas break and the pillars of defense and midfield returned to action.
He blaugrana They created seven big chances against the Basque opposition, took 14 shots and should have won by a bigger margin. Anyway, they are now in the final and have time to rest and recover before the title clash.
Barça Universal Brings you three talking points from Barcelona 2-0 Athletic Club.
The Gavi Super Cup is different
The Barcelona concentration was happy last night after the news arrived that the team received the precautionary measure from the CSD regarding the availability of Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor.
However, with both players unavailable for the match against Athletic Club, the coach had to decide who to use as an attacking midfielder that night. Their decision was quite simple when choosing Gavi.
He The Masia The graduate has been slowly rising since returning from an ACL injury and his confidence has steadily increased with each passing game. Last night, however, the world saw classic Gavi again.
Not for a second in the game did the former Golden Boy winner look less than the player he was before the injury. Starting in attacking midfield, he dictated Barcelona’s preparation, created gaps in the defense and stole the show single-handedly.
It was in the 17th minute of the game when the number 6 opened the scoring for the team and it was clear how much that goal meant to him, being his first goal since his injury. He was in the right place at the right time and took advantage of the assistance of Alejandro Balde.
After the restart, he beautifully set up Yamal for Barcelona’s second goal with a deft touch, placing the winger directly in front of the goal and placing him on a plate.
In addition to his goal and assist, Gavi accumulated three key passes, completed 90% of his passes and created a great opportunity.
Remembering how he single-handedly destroyed Real Madrid in the same competition two years ago, it is clear that the Spanish Super Cup brings out the best in Gavi.
Is Szczesny’s moment beginning?
Despite being set to start for Barcelona against Athletic Club, Iñaki Peña was kicked out of the starting lineup after failing to show up on time. The doors thus opened for Wojciech Szczesny and the veteran showed his class that night.
Having made his debut earlier this week in the Copa del Rey, it will always be interesting to see how he fared against elite opposition. Szczesny, however, was unfazed and proved to be the best player of the match.
The Polish goalkeeper was strong in the 1v1 duels, decent in his distribution and was right when the team needed it most, thus helping Barcelona stay in the game at all times.
In 90 minutes, Szczesny made an astonishing five saves, one of which came from inside the box, and he completed all six of his attempts. He also made two high claims and completed 86% of his passes.
At a time when Iñaki Peña is slowly losing the trust of the board, Sczcesny’s performance could be exactly what the player needs to become Barcelona’s starting goalkeeper.
Within reach of cutlery
One less. One is missing. Barcelona are now halfway to the Spanish Super Cup trophy and it is hard to ignore that titles are just around the corner.
After their slump in form at the end of last year, the dressing room is determined to return stronger than before in the new year, and winning early in 2025 will go a long way to lifting spirits.
In many ways, it would validate Hansi Flick’s project, show the team that they are going in the right direction and motivate them to give their best for the rest of the campaign with solid evidence that it is enough to win the titles.
Having defeated a powerful team like Athletic Club in the semi-final, the team will feel good about their chances as they wait to see who they face in the final.
In all likelihood, it will be Real Madrid who beat Mallorca to earn a place in the title clash and the Catalans will relish the chance to win a trophy by directly defeating their arch-rivals.
