[Sport]Ansu Fati pays tribute to Eto'o in the great triumph of Barcelona in Balaídos

[SougarLord]

 

There is no better triumph than to defeat the past. Because that is where demons pile up and complexes are born.

 

Barcelona had not taken Balaídos for five years, a scene full of fallen heroes that ended up becoming a metaphor for Barca's decline. The Barça team could now cheat, which in Vigo always found the mirror that gave it back its worst image. So your only image. Who knows if all that is already past. Who knows if Ansu Fati's joviality has changed everything. His dazzling toe kick in the opening goal, after twisting his ankle and stretching his leg like a stake, brought him closer to those stings with which Samuel Eto'o was rebelling against the world. At the Bernabéu against Real Madrid. In the final of the Champions of Rome against Manchester United. That night when the Cameroonian, after tapping the veins of his forearm with his fingers, ended up sobbing: "Up there is a just God."

 

Ansu Fati will have time for any of his strokes of genius to relate him to players from another time. He already has three goals in two games. Meanwhile, he has plenty of astonishment in a Barcelona that, after the debut win against Villarreal, shone again in Balaídos. And that the advanced pressure of Òscar García's day laborers, always brave in his idea of a match, promised an uncomfortable match full of stocks. Even more so after a couple of episodic actions in attack by the celestial ones put those of Koeman in a mess that was not such.

 

Once it became clear that the VAR did not come to football to eliminate the bar counter debates, but to promote them, it was easy to understand that the referee Del Cerro Grande monopolized the spotlight. He was surprised at the speed with which he showed Piqué a red card without even waiting for someone to warn him that Denis Suárez, who was the one who was moving free through the center, was starting from an offside position. The referee had to put his hands back in his pockets. And hairs to the sea. Nothing had to be rectified when, shortly afterwards, he expelled Lenglet. The French center-back, who had already earned a yellow for a foul on his front, stuck out his arm to prevent Denis's determined incursion again. Del Cerro Grande did not ignore the punishment due to the anger of the Barcelona fans. An anger that was increasing when seeing how Aidoo dodged similar punishment for knocking down Messi with his stevedore shoulder just before reaching the break. The Celta central no longer left the locker room. Just in case.

 

Although if something is getting Koeman is that his players do not want to know anything about fear. The Dutch coach, who has played three games (including the Joan Gamper trophy) repeating eleven starts, is on the way to building a fierce team. Solidarity in aid. With a marked vertical trend. And, above all, ambitious. At a disadvantage, with 0-1 and the entire second half to play, Barcelona attacked like never before. Already without Griezmann, desolate and condemned to change when Koeman rebuilt the defense with the entry of Araujo.

 

Not only did Barça not flinch, but they allowed themselves extreme delight to the beat of Coutinho, Messi and AnsuFati, with Busquets and De Jong this time as reliable squires in any corner of the field.

 

Coutinho's football has nothing to do with that seen during his first stage at the Barça club. He no longer wanders like a banshee around the left-handed winger. Free in the throat of the field, without any ties, he can express his main qualities: driving, the last pass and the shot. His association with Messi, in fact, originated the 0-2. A play in which a change of pace and a center from the Argentine led to Olaza's own goal.

 

But the Barcelona footballers, in strict black, did not have enough. Coutinho himself later finished off the post and Messi, who went to the rebound to score an empty goal, saw his goal being annulled for offside. There was little use for Òscar to advance ranks, recruit Nolito or regret that an attempt by Baeza ended up on the crossbar. Koeman might as well continue to wind Pedri and Trincao. Or wait for Sergi Roberto to reach 0-3 with the team in full ecstasy of play. Of passion.

 

Barcelona is determined not to look back. To the times when he lived badly in Balaídos.