Match Points : Dynamo Kyiv – FC Barcelona (0-1). Crucial Win Away

Barcelona came to Kyiv for Matchday 4 of this season’s Champions League with everything against Interim Coach Sergi. Nothing but a win would be acceptable for the team last night. However, for a team that was yet to win a game this season away from home, it’s hard. Moreover, Barcelona came to Kyiv knowing that they didn’t even score an away goal since August. That’s more than 2 months ago!

But then came Ansu Fati and scored the most important goal this season so far. Therefore, The Blaugrana are now in the 2nd place in the group. That makes the match vs Benfica on November 23rd one that can secure the place in the next round, or pretty much ‘kill’ our chances. It will also be the 2nd match on the bench for Xavi.

Naturally, more positive than negative points last night. Let’s talk about them.

Positive Points

First win for Sergi Barjuan as the Interim Coach of FC Barcelona last night in Kyiv. The team are still unbeaten under him, although not much better than in the Koeman era. However, Not losing gives the squad good vibes, and it’s important. Furthermore, his subs had a good effect, and personally I missed a coach who knows what players to enter.

• The goal of Ansu was great, but the gesture to Aguero was greater. Ansu didn’t have his best game yesterday, but his sense for goals made the difference again.
• The return of Ousmane Dembele is a great thing for the team. Having a pure winger in the right side will give the team much more options. Gavi is great, but he’s not a winger. The entrance of the Frenchman made a difference. Hopefully, this time he can stay focused and healthy for a long period of time.

• Eric Garcia gets a lot of criticism on social media. But personally, I really like him. He’s a pure Barcelona DNA defender. He has a lot of things to improve, but he’s still very very young. At his age Carles Puyol played in Barcelona B, and in his first months in the first team people talked about how bad was his positioning and how he’s making too much fouls. Give the guy time.
• Nico continues with his great performances. He and Gavi are just a joy to watch. It’s so great to know that we will be able to enjoy them for the next years.

Negative Points

• Frenkie de Jong looked bad last night, and I feel like he wasn’t at his 100%. I know that the match last night was crucial, but we can’t allow more injuries. So I really hope that we’re not rushing players in.
• Memphis Depay is an unexpected player. He can score a banger or dribble past 3 players. But he’s not a pure number 9, and you can see it in the chances he misses. Overall, many chances the team missed yesterday, and this is dangerous. A big task for Xavi will be to help the team ‘Kill’ matches. Dynamo Kyiv were close to score a goal couple of times, and we wouldn’t want Barcelona to chase the game.

Bottom Line

Important win away from home, and 2nd game in a row without losing since Koeman left. A good run of games is very important and hopefully Xavi will take this momentum and grow this team more.

Next Opponent – Celta. Afterwards, the Xavi era will officially begin!

Marco