No time to blink. The match was so vibrant and moved that any mistake meant missing a story to tell. The meeting was a world of episodes that ended with a fair and sensational draw. Manchester United could win, a little rounder during the game, but also Barça, brimming with soul and heart and who provided a final stretch in which they deserved to take the water to their mill. The worst for Xavi's team, which will have to play qualifying at Old Trafford without Pedri, injured, and without Gavi, suspended. A cathedral task awaits Barcelona in Manchester next Thursday but this team has recovered the will and mentality that are so essential in Europe. Marcos Alonso and Raphinha thrashed for the blaugrana, Rashford and Koundé, at their own goal, for the English. The two teams deserved an ovation, for display, effort and intention. It had been predicted and confirmed. This is the Europa League, but it could perfectly be the Champions League, with VAR controversy included because, as in Munich and Milan, Barça was robbed of a penalty.
The Camp Nou began to sing the anthem a cappella. Unmistakable sign of a big game. High meeting. This was how the public interpreted it, who populated the stands almost in their entirety, ready to live a good show and enjoy their team, a Barça that arrived brimming with energy and confidence. But ahead of him he found an adversary who landed in Barcelona with the same coordinates after starring in a brutal renaissance.
To the surprise of the staff, Xavi changed the defense, the line that had been working like clockwork, and bet on Marcos Alonso and Jordi Alba to the detriment of Christensen and Balde. They were not the only novelties. The other, move Araújo to the right side and center Koundé. A decision that did not go well because the Uruguayan was far from a Rashford who would be decisive.
Movements that expressed the respect that the Blaugrana coach had for a United with gunpowder. The beginning of the match confirmed this because Ten Hag, with a brave device, placed Rashford in the lead, with Weghorst behind, and Sancho displaced to the left. In a Premier plan, the Manchester team did not need minutes of testing and began to pedal as if it were Tadej Pogacar. Either Barça would get their act together or they would soon receive a scare. Fortunately for their interests, Araújo and Gavi pulled their team up with their sensational determination and their proverbial intensity. A leg, an arm, a body, a head, whatever it took to install Barcelona in the United field.
During a stretch, Xavi's team managed to push the Red Devils back and Lewandowski tested De Gea with a powerful shot, who responded with reflexes. He vibrated the fans because the party had grace, crumb and alternatives. Barça was all passion but lacked, as in other games, more talent at the forefront. Lewandowski is not going through his most agile moment and Raphinha is a grinder when it comes to working but a limited winger when he has to overflow. Hence, many plays ended in tangles and counterattacks from United, who once again took command of operations and began to put pressure on a Barça with difficulties to get out with the ball, especially an uncomfortable Koundé.
At that moment of anxiety, the figure of Ter Stegen emerged, who saved the 0-1 on two occasions. First against Weghorst and then against Rashford it became a wall, with saves, especially the second, with a changed hand, spectacular. Later, in United's first goal, he would not be so successful. In the other area, De Gea also asserted himself before an irruption by Jordi Alba, who did not fully take advantage of the highway that United left him. The game was on the sill but Barça was faced with bad news, Pedri's muscle injury. Sergi Roberto came on stage in a match without respite and in which Barcelona was going to miss the canary very much.
Because the resumption was a centrifuge. A real fight without a chain. He hit Barça first, with the headed goal after a Marcos Alonso corner, dedicated with emotion and sobriety to his father, who died last week. But he couldn't even taste the rent because Rashford beat Marcos Alonso's back and beat a Ter Stegen at the near post who should have done more in that action.
In the blink of an eye, there was a tie again and, as usually happens to Barça in Europe, the blow did not end here. Because seven minutes later it was 1-2 after a short corner in which Rashford stripped Raphinha and crossed into the area. Koundé deflected the ball into his own goal.
Then yes. So Xavi did make three changes and returned to the starting defense, with Araújo as center back, Balde for Alba and Christensen for Marcos Alonso. He also turned to Ansu Fati in case the flame of the goal was lit.
There was time left and a tie and, at least, that the wound was not greater.
The panorama was painted gray turning to black but in a match of ups and downs there was a new twist in the script in the most unlikely way. A cross from the unruly Raphinha towards Lewandowski that closed in, that did not touch the Pole and that lodged in De Gea's net. He surprisingly he was replaced next.
The Camp Nou was resurrected and Barça too. At that point and with the fever through the roof, anything could happen. Xavi's team went all out. The ending was even more electrifying. Fred deflected the ball with his hand but the referee and the VAR did the Swedes, De Gea saved an opportunity from Ansu Fati and the Blaugrana team even sent a ball to the post in a convoluted play. But the marker no longer moved. The show was worth it.
