Barcelona ran into yet another blow on Wednesday evening by losing 3-0 on a visit to Benfica. Ronald Koeman’s team quickly faced a backlog in Lisbon and was unable to reverse that setback. The duel and the recent developments were also the subject of discussion on Wednesday evening football talk, where Barcelona’s pain points were discussed in detail.
Cristian Willaert didn’t think Barcelona was too bad for a visit to Benfica. “Then it’s really bad,” the reporter of said ESPN on a number of missed opportunities. “What I did find striking and brave of Koeman was that he substituted Pique during the first half. You can do that, but then you have to win the match. He can leave him, but if he gets red, he gets everyone over themselves. Now it can also go wrong, but on its own condition.”
Marciano Vink thought it was mainly an ‘unlucky’ substitution for Koeman. Pique was booked after twelve minutes and then escaped his second yellow card, after which Koeman pulled him aside. “It was unfortunate that he had to make this change,” said Vink. “The whole block of six didn’t work out. If you take Frenkie away in midfield and put in the back, you know he can dribble in and create a surplus. But if you have two or three players up front who don’t score, it will hold up somewhere. If you get behind after two minutes, you know it’s going to be very difficult.”
Vink was particularly unhappy about Eric García. The center defender was negatively involved in the first goal and had to get off in the final phase with a red card after his second yellow card. “At that first goal, a turning circle of a truck. Come on man. That opponent (Darwin Núñez, ed.) makes scissors. You know that he goes to his right leg, if you have read a bit. You should know that Then force him to his left leg. He does a pair of scissors, can play it forward and shoot in the short corner, that should never happen.”
Kees Kwakman does not think that Koeman will stay on as coach of Barcelona for very long. “You have the idea that it could be over with Koeman at any moment because of the whole thing. Then such a defeat comes over it. But of course they hiccup against that transfer fee.” Willaert, who called his Spanish ESPN colleague Jordi Blanco immediately after the game, shares Kwakman’s opinion. “In Spain they think this is the last straw.”