Barça does its homework in Belgrade

Barça delivered in Belgrade. The team led by Hansi Flick beat Red Star by a landslide in a match marked by the abysmal distance between both teams. The goals from Iñigo Martínez, Raphinha, Fermín and Lewandowski, on two occasions, rewarded the Blaugranas, who played a match with ups and downs, but who are still on a roll. They are already among the eight best in the regular phase of the Champions League and they see a direct pass to the round of 16 closer.

Relaxing is prohibited. It is Flick’s maxim and it was the main danger that Barcelona was going to encounter in Belgrade. And the culés arrived with excessive euphoria and in front of them was one of the Cinderellas of the Champions League. That fear was evident in an eleven with few changes in which only Gerard Martín and Frenkie de Jong, who served as a pivot alongside Marc Casadó, differed from the eleven that the fan begins to recite by heart. The result, however, was not what was expected. The culés were at the beginning a team with good ideas, but with a slower progress than in the last matches.

Even with that, the Blaugranas did not need their best version to leave with an advantage at half-time. They went ahead with a header from Iñigo Martínez from a set piece and then gave wings to a Red Star team grown with the atmosphere of the Little Maracaná. In that noise, Flick’s advanced defense failed and Silas, alone against Iñaki Peña, defined to punish Barça with less intensity than usual to pressure the ball holder. From there the culés improved thanks to greater participation between the lines by Pedri, playmaker on this occasion, and the goal came of its own weight after Lewandowski hunted down a rebound in the area.

After the restart, Barça was different. The culés bit into the opposite field and accelerated the actions to the point of dismasting the Red Star. Pedri became undetectable, Koundé and Gerard Martín moved forward and Lamine Yamal began to generate imbalances. The table was set for the Blaugranas to put on their boots. Lewandowski forgave two and on the third the Pole took advantage of a lateral center from Koundé to lower the decibels and hit the jugular of the Serbian team, which would no longer be the same.

Barça smelled blood and, immediately afterwards, Koundé gained the baseline again and his back pass was defined by Raphinha to definitively seal the match. With everything resolved, Flick began with the carousel of changes. He brought on Dani Olmo, Fermín López and Gavi to continue with their set-up after their respective injuries and retired Cubarsí, with a gap in his face after a throw. The changes and the distance on the scoreboard served to make the match drop in intensity.

Red Star tried with more heart than head and the Blaugranas let themselves be carried through the ball to close the game and round off the task in the final stretch with a goal from Fermín after a new assist from Koundé, the third of the night . It was the last cartridge for a Barça that conceded the second after a right hand from Milson, but that remains unleashed and that is located in a privileged area of ​​the classification to directly access the second round.