Depay saves point for Barcelona with a beautiful goal

Saturday, August 21, 2021 at 23:50• Daniel Cabot Kerkdijk

Barcelona had to settle for a draw in La Liga on Saturday night. Six days after the 4-2 victory over Real Sociedad on the first day of play, the team of coach Ronald Koeman did not go further than 1-1 against Athletic Club. Koeman opted for exactly the same eleven, including Sergiño Dest, Frenkie de Jong and Memphis Depay. The attacker nicely scored the equalizer fifteen minutes before the end. Barcelona will play a home game with Getafe next Sunday just before the international match.

The first half in Bilbao ended goalless, partly due to a somewhat controversial decision by Juan Martínez Munuera in extra time. Goalkeeper Julen Agirrezabala dropped a ball in the mouth of the goal, after which Ronald Araujo aimed the ball into the goal with an overhead kick via the right post. Martínez Munuera, however, noted a (slight) pushing error by Martin Braithwaite towards Mikel Balenziaga and disallowed the goal. A decision about which the players of Koeman emphatically complained.

Athletic put a lot of pressure in the first 45 minutes when Barcelona wanted to build the game. Koeman watched patiently as his players struggled to break through this Basque line and the home team therefore also had the prospect of a goal. A bet by Oihan Sancet went against the aluminum and De Jong barely prevented a shot by Iñaki Williams from going on target after a misstep by the nervous-looking Neto. Barcelona could only counter that with a big miss from Braithwaite, after good preparatory work by Depay, in the opening minutes.

After less than half an hour of play, Koeman had another downer: Gerard Piqué was unable to continue the game and had to be replaced by Araujo. Athletic started the second half very strongly and after sixteen seconds Araujo prevented a shot from Álex Berenguer on the goal line that broke the game open. However, it was a harbinger of the opening goal in the fiftieth minute. Iñigo Martinez walked away from Eric Garcia after a corner from Iker Muniain and headed the ball diagonally behind Neto: 1-0.

Many Barcelona players continued to fall through the lower limit as the first half progressed and Koeman opted for the first changes after more than an hour of play: Braithwaite and Pedri gave way to debutant Yusuf Demir and Sergi Roberto. Barcelona became somewhat more dangerous and had bad luck that a subtle lob from De Jong did not end up in the goal but hit the bar. Fifteen minutes before the end of the game, it was still hit: Sergi Roberto delivered the ball on the left to Depay, who shot the leather in the penalty area hard and high behind Agirrezabala, making his first official goal in the Barcelona kit.

However, it also turned out to be the last feat of arms of the match. Depay, in particular, tried to help Barcelona to a win, but the referee allowed play to continue when the the Dutch international claimed a foul in the penalty area and five minutes before the end, his re-directed effort went just wide of Agirrezabala’s goal. Although Athletic’s players were clearly tired, Barcelona could not force a victory. In extra time Eric Garcia was shown a red card for not being able to keep up with Williams.