They snatched victory over a wave of negativity in Bilbao.

fiery atmosphere

The confrontation between Barcelona and Athletic has a rich history, although not as tense as between Blaugrana and Real Madrid. However, the match at San Mames showed that the Basques can show emotion too. First of all, it concerns the fans. In the 30th minute, they put on a funny performance, starting to throw fake banknotes with the Barcelona logo and the inscription “mafia” on the field, and along the way they sang calls to send the Catalan club to the second division.

The mood was felt throughout the game. When Barcelona played on ball possession, the Basque crowd was quite vocal in their dissatisfaction, distinctly booing the process. It goes without saying that a storm of indignation exploded at the end of the match, when the referee canceled Inaki Williams’ goal after the intervention of the VAR. However, more on that later. And the general negative mood of the fans was also appreciated by Xavi after the match:

I respect the San Mames fans. They have always treated me well. And I was surprised by the hostile atmosphere towards Barcelona. It was sad to see him. Well, I think it’s good for society. Everyone is free to express their opinion and I respect every point of view, whether they agree or not. But this situation shocked me.

Nervous ending

About 65 minutes into the match, Barcelona fell seriously ill. The Catalans spent the last quarter of the game under the powerful onslaught of Athletic. He struck eight times on visitors’ goals during this period and Barcelona responded with just one attempt. It was inaccurate. While of Athletic’s eight shots in the last half hour of the match, four proved to be accurate. Furthermore, in the last twenty minutes of the game, ball possession in favor of the Basques exceeded 60%. When did the Catalans find themselves in this position?

On the verge of failure in this segment, they were twice. In stoppage time, a miracle saved Ter Stegen’s goal. More precisely, in one case it was Marc-André himself, then it was done by Kunde and Alonso, who blocked shots right on the goal line. But there was an episode that some have already called controversial. After launching Guruzeta from the depths of Inaki, Williams whistled past Alonso and Balde with a bullet, went one-on-one with ter Stegen and speared him.

Referee Gil Manzano conceded the goal, but the VAR sent it to a replay. It turned out that at the very beginning of the attack in the fight against de Jong, Munyain played the ball with his hand. This was enough for the referee to disallow the goal, raising the ire of the crowd. Formally, the referee had the right to do this, since the ball really hit the arm below the shoulder. But this happened in the fight, the ball just fell from above and Muniain flew forward. Yes, and somewhere near his face was de Jong’s leg, so the hand movement was pretty instinctive and had little effect on the bounce of the ball. But Gil Manzano decided to work formally. Athletic coach Ernesto Valverde did not give his assessment of the situation after the match, running away with a long comment:

I saw the picture and I don’t know what to say. The question here is what is considered football and what is not. I think VAR is needed to correct serious errors. It’s designed for that. For big mistakes. For example, to see if the ball has crossed the line or not, whether it is in play or not. Call the referee to see a replay if the ball has touched the hand… I don’t know if this applies to football. Another time the same will happen with another team.

On thin ice

For Barcelona, ​​Xavi’s 1-0 is already a style signature. Hardly anyone could have guessed it. This is the third consecutive victory for the Catalans with this score. In total, the Catalans have won nine matches in the current La Liga season with a score of 1:0. This is a club record. But the all-time record still needs to be achieved a bit. It is shared by three teams at once. Atlético achieved 11 wins by 1-0 each in the 2017/18 season, Sevilla in the 2020/21 season and Valencia in the 1988/89 season. Barcelona are quite capable of taking such an unusual bar.

The match against Athletic showed once again how much the luck factor can affect statistics. And like pure statistics they don’t always reflect the nature of the matches. After all, the Catalans, one might say, “bounced”. But in the big picture of the season, this game will still fall as typical. Barcelona have played 19 of their 25 league games this season without conceding a goal. That’s more than any other team in the top five leagues. In total, Barcelona conceded just eight goals. This is an all-time low for the current stage of the season in La Liga.

At the same time, Athletic had 15 shots on goal per game. And this is the second indicator among the teams of the Spanish championship in matches against Barcelona this season. In January only Atlético had more, who scored 20 times. That match also ended 1-0 in favor of the Catalans, by the way. Such matches require a special performance from the goalkeeper. Ter Stegen is also in the record. He equaled his best record of his: 19 shutouts in a season. And there are 13 more league games ahead.

Such reliability and luck mean that Barcelona don’t need to shine up front to get three points a game. Here in the match with Athletic, Lewandowski himself was clearly not in the best shape. And Torres too. Hence the paradox of the Catalans’ perception of the game. They lead La Liga with a nine-point lead, but receive criticism for game content. Because the fans are not used to these Barcelona victories. At the same time, it’s worth recognizing that a win is a win.

As Lewandowski’s form sagged and Dembele was injured, Rafinha himself, who had previously received much criticism, suddenly came to the fore. The winning goal against Athletic, the winning goal last night against Valencia, marked five goals in the last ten games since Dembele was out. Rafinha now has nine goals and nine assists in all competitions this season. Furthermore, he has scored eight goals in his last 20 games since the start of the season, compared to just one in his first 17.