Barcelona repeats a sad performance and falls to Shakhtar

Barça once again offers a poor performance and loses its undefeated record in the Champions League by losing on its visit to Shakhtar Donetsk.

HAMBURG –The Barcelona He arrives in November crying out for a reset, a change of order… Something, anything, to wake him up from a bad dream. He won, almost by chance, in San Sebastián and Hamburg He once again showed that sad image that has been with him for many weeks now.

I fell in front of a Shakhtar more organized, more concise, more of everything… And he left his pass to the round of 16 of the Champions League in quarantine. He crashed badly in Germany and what was supposed to be a ride in the group stage got caught at the worst time… And he still had some luck when a second goal was disallowed. Newerton which in addition to the defeat would have left them with the goal average lost against the Ukrainian team.

Xavi shook up the starting team with up to five changes and before game time he had to make changes. Romeu, Ferran, Raphinha and Marcos Alonso, left where they had come without leaving a single detail with which to argue their game. Raphinha had already lost up to four balls in twenty minutes, Marcos Alonso was as insubstantial in attack as he was weak in defense, Ferran Torres did not find a single solution in attack and Romeu ended up making the field too long.

And next to all of them… More of the same. Just like in Anoeta, Barça lacked ideas and lacked rhythm. A rhythm that Gavi and Gundogan barely showed while behind Araújo multiplied to cover gaps and up Lewandowski He still couldn’t find his place. And it’s not the first time…

From everything to nothing, from control to lack of control, Barça’s first half was a real puzzle, difficult to interpret and even more difficult to understand when their presentation was as forceful as could be expected to get rid of the bad taste in the mouth of the last match in San Sebastián.

But that dominance, that forcefulness, that superiority went out in an incomprehensible way, unable to break the calm of the Ukrainian defense… And, again, breaking in the middle. This led to disorder and suffering every time Shakhtar looked for a counterattack.

And to suffer more and more since after a quarter of an hour a ridiculous defense by Cancelo ended with a point-blank shot by Matviyenko that was miraculously saved by Ter Stegen. Barça was already lost at that moment. It was no longer that dominating team that its coach had ventured the day before and Shakhtar, led by an excellent Sudakov, began to gain ground until, as half-time approached, he dealt them a fatal blow.

A superb change of play from the Ukrainian number 10, a poor placement from Marcos, a comfortable cross from Gocholeishvili and a magnificent shot from Sikan, beating Christensen and beating Ter Stegen.

NERVES AND URGENCY

The first half ended badly and the second started almost worse, with another chain of errors from the defense that only the brilliant performance of Ter Stegen prevented Gocholeishvili from scoring the second.

As the minutes go by, it happened in Hamburg as so many times in previous games, Barça gets into a rush and urgency. The need to make up for lost time and finally solve everything that you didn’t know how to do before. Xavi praised that faith, ensuring that it shows a team that does not give up, but what is revealed is a team that survives with a blow, mixing luck with rebellion… But without football.

And since football doesn’t come, fortune doesn’t always come. Asking for non-existent penalties, overwhelmed and disorganized in attack, Barça did not arrive in time this time to avoid defeat. A defeat as deserved as it is worrying. And from which he will have to recover, in Europe and in the League, as soon as possible.