BETIS – BARCELONA Barça signs up for the epic

Barça lives in confusing and cathartic times in which style and drawing have given way to the prevailing football fashion, which is the epic of the last minute. And welcome be it because thanks to her, andhe Barcelona team managed to confirm its presence in the next Champions League after winning 1-2 at the Benito Villamarín with a great goal from Alba in added time that gave value to one from Ansu that is worth a lot in the present and a lot in the future that made Bartra’s draw useless. Xavi’s team won its first final in the League of five announced by his coach.

The Villamarín match began with a corridor that hinted at a kind of truce between two compadres who have gone out partying and they try to drag it out after the previous night has been of different luck for both of them. While Betis arrived hurt, tired but triumphant and wanting to go slowly, Barcelona left after having spent the same night, but without glory, only wear and tear. Both seemed to sign a slow and leisurely start to that day after the spill.

Betis had a happy start due to the revelry in the stands, Barça had enough that they did not score from the start. Between that foggy hangover of both teams, who clearly needed a coffee to wake up, Xavi’s team tried to survive with Neto as goalkeeper, because Ter Stegen was still indisposed. That the one from Terrassa, already with the League lost, decided to expose the Portuguese who is in the showcase before Tenas, that it could have a future is a topic to analyze in the future.

Betis’ tactics after the Cup, after the fair and before the final sprint were basic: balls next to Alves and try to get Juanmi to overwhelm the Brazilian. On the part of Barça, the plan was quite similar: balls to Dembélé and that he created some danger. He created it and deactivated it in the same play. Nothing new under the Sevillian night.

The highlight of the first act was Bravo’s injury a quarter of an hour into the first half, which brought on Rui Silva, who as soon as he entered the pitch flew to send Araújo’s header off the crossbar.

Betis, to the tran-tran corresponded to that offense with a shot by Guido to the post. The only actions that animated an evening that could only be animated when the party was broken, more, because it was born disastrous.

That the meeting was on the way to the cutting room was very popular. The question was to see who would be the one who would take advantage of the spoils of the rival. Dembélé threatened and the usual happened (nothing) and Neto avoided Juanmi’s blows. In a game without an owner, everything was left to individual inspiration or collective error. It was a matter of waiting.

And tired of waiting, Xavi changed his entire forward for the final stretch of the match: Adama, Ansu and Aubameyang entered. And the thing worked because Ansu’s angel continues to take care of a player who needed a minute and 17 seconds to score after having threatened on the first ball he touched.

But Barça is as much a slave to its virtues as it is to its shortcomings. Where Ansu put the virtue, the blaugrana defense dictated the penance so that a minute after the boy’s goal, Bartra scored with a header after a lateral free kick launched by Fekir.

And with the party absolutely lost in the middle of nowhere, with no one to govern it, in the end the Barça managed to appeal to the epic with Alba’s goal, which is what’s cool at the moment. An epic, which feeds the future.