Villarreal/Barcelona - The game no one ever wanted to finish

[Scipio Africanus]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/bl ... -to-finish

Villarreal v Barcelona was something wild and wonderful, a 4-4 draw that was as exhausting as it was exhilarating

“A minute after the game, we could say a thousand barbaric things,” Vicente Iborra said, but none of them could ever express it as well as the look on his face as he stood there on the touchline trying to work out what had just happened and how. Behind him, Leo Messi hugged Santi Cazorla and, watching it, you kind of wished you could hug them too. “Peculiar,” Sergio Asenjo called it. “Mad,” Ernesto Valverde offered. “We’ve stabbed ourselves,” Iborra added. “Football’s given us quite a beating,” Javier Calleja said. Which was true, six points in three days somehow becoming just one, salvation denied, but it had given everyone else quite a night: something wild and wonderful, a 4-4 draw that was as exhausting as it was exhilarating.

Calleja scored the last time Villarreal and Barcelona drew 4-4 here, Patrick Kluivert getting a 90th-minute equaliser to come back from 3-0 and 4-3 down, back in April 2001. But even that wasn’t quite like this, the man who is now Villarreal’s manager, re-signed to rescue them 49 days after he was sacked, barely able to believe what he was watching unfold before him. “A point against Barcelona isn’t bad, but …” he shrugged. But they were this close to it being more, one player admitting that he felt “sunk”, the team heading towards the second division. And yet, it felt as if the point wasn’t really the point. Instead, there was something simpler, more primitive.

As the front cover of Marca put it this morning: “Football is incredible.”


Sometimes it’s not of course but sometimes, somehow football finds a way. And on Tuesday night, it certainly was. Beyond the results, beyond the consequences, beyond the calculations and the points, there’s the game, and that’s what remains. It’s not so much what happened that you remember as what you felt, and by the end of Villarreal-Barcelona you had felt it all, accelerating through emotions.

“It was a mad game. We could have won easily, they could have won easily. And then …” said Valverde. He was almost laughing as he said so, and that became a recurring theme. Sentences went unfinished and the word used most seemed to be pffff. In AS, the novelist and poet Juan Cruz came up with three words and none were as good: unjust, joyous, implausible. Guillermo Amor played for Villarreal in 2001 too; now he’s a director at Barcelona, the man whose job it is to find the right words after every game. Here, he smiled, looked a little lost, and then said: “It had everything.”

It had eight goals, 19 shots on target, a post, a bar, 26 dribbles, and exactly 1,000 passes, Arturo Vidal completing more of them anyone else. It had great saves, brilliant goals and bizarre ones. It didn’t have Gerard Piqué, sitting out for the first time all season to devastating effect, or much in the way of defending until Ramiro Funes Mori suddenly, unexpectedly, stood up in the second half. But it did have Samu Chukwueze, so fast everyone else was going backwards. Malcom, scoring one and providing another in 15 almost unfathomably good minutes, El Periódico likening him to Colin McGlashan, the Scottish striker who famously got concussed during one Partick Thistle game and didn’t know who he was, prompting his coach John Lambie to tell the physio: “Great, tell him he’s Pelé and send him back out there.” And Luis Suárez, a baffling combination of everything.

It had Santiago Cazorla González, ladies and gentlemen. He created eight – yes, eight – clear opportunities. And it also had Messi. It wasn’t supposed to, but it did. Rested, ready for Atlético at the weekend, he was eventually called from the bench. “He could have stayed there,” Calleja grumbled, tongue only slightly wedged in his cheek. He could, and Villarreal might have got a victory that would have been huge, giving them room to breathe, some space between them and relegation, and some comfort after they lost a two-goal lead at Celta on Saturday. But then it wouldn’t have had the ending it had.

Villarreal could have had two inside seven minutes, Marc-André ter Stegen making two superb stops. Instead, Barcelona had two inside 15, Philippe Coutinho scoring the first, Malcom getting the second. Coutinho then hit the post and another good chance was passed up. Barcelona, superb to start with, were cutting through the worst defence since some bright spark at Troy decided a wooden horse would look great in the living room. But then it was 2-1 and almost 2-2 and a different game. Samu scored the first and then watched Ter Stegen stop him again. It wasn’t even half-time yet.

Four minutes into the second half, Toto Ekambi was sent away up the right. Ter Stegen stepped out to meet the cross, watching a yellow shirt dash into the six-yard box in front him, but Ekambi didn’t cross. Instead, he stuck it straight in at the near post, a sensational shot that caught them all by surprise. Still they came, Barcelona falling apart, Sergio Busquets alone and overrun, Samuel Umtiti looking like a player who had only started eight times all season. Messi was sent on but it didn’t get better; it might even have got worse for a while. The same went for Ivan Rakitic. Iborra made it 3-2 after an hour, then Cazorla sent Carlos Bacca running through, the footballer who once sold fish going round Ter Stegen to finish. For the first time since 1949, a team had trailed by two against Barcelona and now led by two. “We’d done the hardest part,” Calleja said. “We produced a great performance; I take my hat off to them.”

Barcelona, on the other hand, hadn’t. They’d been “ridiculed”, as one paper put it, on the verge of being defeated 18 games later, and heavily too. It seemed like there might be a title race after all: lose and with seven games left Barcelona would be seven points ahead of Atlético, who go to the Camp Nou on Saturday. But then, El País, said: “Barcelona don’t lose, even when they try to.” Or as Suárez insisted: “We have to be aware that we got it wrong but we showed spirit and that we want this league.” Villarreal had rebelled and clung to survival against the hardest opponent of all, about to beat the league leaders. “We saw everything painted black,” Asenjo said, “then we turned it around … and then …” Time had ticked away until it was almost gone, and then it happened.

“Incredible!” screamed the front of Sport. “Madness,” said El Mundo Deportivo. “Total madness,” said Marca, taking it a little further. “Barcelona, resuscitated,” ran the headline above Santi Gimenez’s piece in AS, but not before he sent out an SOS. “Time to stick another match report up your bum mode,” he lamented.

In the 86th minute, Álvaro was sent off. In the 90th, Messi was brought down on the edge of area. The clock showed 89.49 when he struck an absurd rocket of a free-kick in off the post,. “It’s a fraction of a second,” Asenjo said; “Messi was precise …” Valverde said: “… Pffff, very, very precise.” The photo of them watching the ball passing the wall was like some Renaissance painting you could spend hours looking at, forever finding new elements.

Three minutes were added, because three minutes are always added, even when you wish it would never end. With the clock showing 92.55 and Ter Stegen up for a corner, the ball came to Suárez, who hit it back again, on the bounce, whizzing through and into the net.

And then, right then, the referee did something terrible: he blew the final whistle and brought the fun to an end.

[Goldleaf]

Chukwueze reminds me of a very young Ryan Giggs. When one thinks of what Ryan Giggs went on to achieve in his career, you just pray for an Alex Ferguson-type figure to grab hold of Chukwueze and never let him go. The boy has serious potential. What a player!!

[Enugu II]

Chukwueze reminds me of a very young Ryan Giggs. When one thinks of what Ryan Giggs went on to achieve in his career, you just pray for an Alex Ferguson-type figure to grab hold of Chukwueze and never let him go. The boy has serious potential. What a player!!

Goldleaf,

Let us all hope. The fact is that his talent is one that may see him crowned the best ever player to come out of Nigeria. I think of his incredible pace and his ability to keep control of the ball at that pace and then his shooting. The potential is there. The question is will he achieve it.

[Damunk]

Chukwueze reminds me of a very young Ryan Giggs. When one thinks of what Ryan Giggs went on to achieve in his career, you just pray for an Alex Ferguson-type figure to grab hold of Chukwueze and never let him go. The boy has serious potential. What a player!!

Goldleaf,

Let us all hope. The fact is that his talent is one that may see him crowned the best ever player to come out of Nigeria. I think of his incredible pace and his ability to keep control of the ball at that pace and then his shooting. The potential is there. The question is will he achieve it.

Arjen Robben for me.
Giggs? Maybe.

[Scipio Africanus]

Chukwueze reminds me of a very young Ryan Giggs. When one thinks of what Ryan Giggs went on to achieve in his career, you just pray for an Alex Ferguson-type figure to grab hold of Chukwueze and never let him go. The boy has serious potential. What a player!!

Goldleaf,

Let us all hope. The fact is that his talent is one that may see him crowned the best ever player to come out of Nigeria. I think of his incredible pace and his ability to keep control of the ball at that pace and then his shooting. The potential is there. The question is will he achieve it.

Arjen Robben for me.
Giggs? Maybe.

Yeah. To me more like a combo of Robben and Mbappe (speed wise). If he stays clear of injury the sky is the limit.

[Siddonlook11]

This game was fire !!

[Kabalega]

Chukwueze should have had a hatrick.

This is why I watch La Liga instead of the EPL.
Both teams had poor defending but quality everywhere else.

This is the second game in a row that Villarreal went up by two goals and then caved.
The stupid red card ruined it for them.

[Damunk]

Chukwueze reminds me of a very young Ryan Giggs. When one thinks of what Ryan Giggs went on to achieve in his career, you just pray for an Alex Ferguson-type figure to grab hold of Chukwueze and never let him go. The boy has serious potential. What a player!!

Goldleaf,

Let us all hope. The fact is that his talent is one that may see him crowned the best ever player to come out of Nigeria. I think of his incredible pace and his ability to keep control of the ball at that pace and then his shooting. The potential is there. The question is will he achieve it.

Arjen Robben for me.
Giggs? Maybe.

Yeah. To me more like a combo of Robben and Mbappe (speed wise). If he stays clear of injury the sky is the limit.

Robben was no slouch himself, esp when younger.

Anyway, I know I like to go on and on about the psychological aspect of the game (which I believe fans largely underestimate) but I find myself wondering what has made the difference between Iheanacho and Chukwueze.

Both wonderfully gifted left-footed Nigerian youth strikers that excelled on the world youth stage. Though slightly different in style (Samu has always been a dribbler; Nacho was more of a strategic kind of player, seeing what others couldn't see with a great sense of positional awareness of self and teammates) their development paths have differed greatly. The master dribbler from Nacho's 'class of 2013' was Yahaya Musa and he hasn't moved much in Portugal either.

So what is the secret?
Is it all in the head?
Watching Samu v Barca yesterday, you could almost smell the self-confidence.

One can hold out and argue for Nacho that he's in or with the wrong league/wrong team/wrong manager but we are slowly running out of excuses.

He is still young and we pray he will come good, but to be fair, he has not been short of opportunities for a 22 year old. Sane and Sterling he played with in ManCity are 23 and 24 respectively.

[cic old boy]

But it did have Samu Chukwueze, so fast everyone else was going backwards.

[Siddonlook11]

Chukwueze should have had a hatrick.

This is why I watch La Liga instead of the EPL.
Both teams had poor defending but quality everywhere else.

This is the second game in a row that Villarreal went up by two goals and then caved.
The stupid red card ruined it for them.

Walahi..I think clubs need to punish players for stupidity.. that read card was silly and likely cost them the 2 pts .

[pajimoh]

Villarreal fans surely wanted the game to finish at 2-0 up

[onwuatuegwu]

Chukwueze should have had a hatrick.

This is why I watch La Liga instead of the EPL.
Both teams had poor defending but quality everywhere else.

This is the second game in a row that Villarreal went up by two goals and then caved.
The stupid red card ruined it for them.

Walahi..I think clubs need to punish players for stupidity.. that read card was silly and likely cost them the 2 pts .

The question should be was the offense red card worthy? ojoro red card as usual in favor of Barca

[kajifu]

Chukwueze is on Zidan summer list PSG is looking at him as their number one target.
Funny thing after the game Messi walk inside Villareal dressing room and shake his hand that is the highlight of that game

[john12]

Kaji lies

[Dammy]

Chukwueze is on Zidan summer list PSG is looking at him as their number one target.
Funny thing after the game Messi walk inside Villareal dressing room and shake his hand that is the highlight of that game

Reputable Italian football outlet, tuttomercatoweb values Chukwueze at 63 million euros.

[Dammy]

Kaji lies

[Dammy]

Chukwueze reminds me of a very young Ryan Giggs. When one thinks of what Ryan Giggs went on to achieve in his career, you just pray for an Alex Ferguson-type figure to grab hold of Chukwueze and never let him go. The boy has serious potential. What a player!!

Goldleaf,

Let us all hope. The fact is that his talent is one that may see him crowned the best ever player to come out of Nigeria. I think of his incredible pace and his ability to keep control of the ball at that pace and then his shooting. The potential is there. The question is will he achieve it.

Arjen Robben for me.
Giggs? Maybe.

Yeah. To me more like a combo of Robben and Mbappe (speed wise). If he stays clear of injury the sky is the limit.

Robben was no slouch himself, esp when younger.

Anyway, I know I like to go on and on about the psychological aspect of the game (which I believe fans largely underestimate) but I find myself wondering what has made the difference between Iheanacho and Chukwueze.

Both wonderfully gifted left-footed Nigerian youth strikers that excelled on the world youth stage. Though slightly different in style (Samu has always been a dribbler; Nacho was more of a strategic kind of player, seeing what others couldn't see with a great sense of positional awareness of self and teammates) their development paths have differed greatly. The master dribbler from Nacho's 'class of 2013' was Yahaya Musa and he hasn't moved much in Portugal either.

So what is the secret?
Is it all in the head?
Watching Samu v Barca yesterday, you could almost smell the self-confidence.

One can hold out and argue for Nacho that he's in or with the wrong league/wrong team/wrong manager but we are slowly running out of excuses.

He is still young and we pray he will come good, but to be fair, he has not been short of opportunities for a 22 year old. Sane and Sterling he played with in ManCity are 23 and 24 respectively.

If Nacho can find his mojo again with Kalu and Chukwueze on the wings, the SE will destroy opponents.

[Scipio Africanus]

Chukwueze reminds me of a very young Ryan Giggs. When one thinks of what Ryan Giggs went on to achieve in his career, you just pray for an Alex Ferguson-type figure to grab hold of Chukwueze and never let him go. The boy has serious potential. What a player!!

Goldleaf,

Let us all hope. The fact is that his talent is one that may see him crowned the best ever player to come out of Nigeria. I think of his incredible pace and his ability to keep control of the ball at that pace and then his shooting. The potential is there. The question is will he achieve it.

Arjen Robben for me.
Giggs? Maybe.

Yeah. To me more like a combo of Robben and Mbappe (speed wise). If he stays clear of injury the sky is the limit.

Robben was no slouch himself, esp when younger.

Anyway, I know I like to go on and on about the psychological aspect of the game (which I believe fans largely underestimate) but I find myself wondering what has made the difference between Iheanacho and Chukwueze.

Both wonderfully gifted left-footed Nigerian youth strikers that excelled on the world youth stage. Though slightly different in style (Samu has always been a dribbler; Nacho was more of a strategic kind of player, seeing what others couldn't see with a great sense of positional awareness of self and teammates) their development paths have differed greatly. The master dribbler from Nacho's 'class of 2013' was Yahaya Musa and he hasn't moved much in Portugal either.

So what is the secret?
Is it all in the head?
Watching Samu v Barca yesterday, you could almost smell the self-confidence.

One can hold out and argue for Nacho that he's in or with the wrong league/wrong team/wrong manager but we are slowly running out of excuses.

He is still young and we pray he will come good, but to be fair, he has not been short of opportunities for a 22 year old. Sane and Sterling he played with in ManCity are 23 and 24 respectively.

Coaching could be the main difference here. I think Chukwueze enjoys a lot of support from his coach, and that in turn feeds his confidence which reinforces the coach's support for him, etc.

Plus Nacho, like you said, is just a different kind of player, dribbling is not his forte. In football, successful dribblers will always be rewarded more than non dribblers.

[Kabalega]

Chukwueze should have had a hatrick.

This is why I watch La Liga instead of the EPL.
Both teams had poor defending but quality everywhere else.

This is the second game in a row that Villarreal went up by two goals and then caved.
The stupid red card ruined it for them.

Walahi..I think clubs need to punish players for stupidity.. that read card was silly and likely cost them the 2 pts .

The question should be was the offense red card worthy? ojoro red card as usual in favor of Barca

Did you even see the game?
The foul was yellow card worthy as given.
The ref actually took his time to mull over the card because he knew the dude was already on a yellow.
It was a stupid foul for a player already on a yellow card.

[Siddonlook11]

Chukwueze should have had a hatrick.

This is why I watch La Liga instead of the EPL.
Both teams had poor defending but quality everywhere else.

This is the second game in a row that Villarreal went up by two goals and then caved.
The stupid red card ruined it for them.

Walahi..I think clubs need to punish players for stupidity.. that read card was silly and likely cost them the 2 pts .

The question should be was the offense red card worthy? ojoro red card as usual in favor of Barca

Did you even see the game?
The foul was yellow card worthy as given.
The ref actually took his time to mull over the card because he knew the dude was already on a yellow.
It was a stupid foul for a player already on a yellow card.

Thank you nothing more to add. The guy get luck say Oliseh no be im coach im for receive $%&*..

[Gotti]

Goldleaf,

Let us all hope. The fact is that his talent is one that may see him crowned the best ever player to come out of Nigeria. I think of his incredible pace and his ability to keep control of the ball at that pace and then his shooting. The potential is there. The question is will he achieve it.

You folks have come again...

[maceo4]

Chukwueze reminds me of a very young Ryan Giggs. When one thinks of what Ryan Giggs went on to achieve in his career, you just pray for an Alex Ferguson-type figure to grab hold of Chukwueze and never let him go. The boy has serious potential. What a player!!

Goldleaf,

Let us all hope. The fact is that his talent is one that may see him crowned the best ever player to come out of Nigeria. I think of his incredible pace and his ability to keep control of the ball at that pace and then his shooting. The potential is there. The question is will he achieve it.

Arjen Robben for me.
Giggs? Maybe.

Yeah. To me more like a combo of Robben and Mbappe (speed wise). If he stays clear of injury the sky is the limit.

Robben was no slouch himself, esp when younger.

Anyway, I know I like to go on and on about the psychological aspect of the game (which I believe fans largely underestimate) but I find myself wondering what has made the difference between Iheanacho and Chukwueze.

Both wonderfully gifted left-footed Nigerian youth strikers that excelled on the world youth stage. Though slightly different in style (Samu has always been a dribbler; Nacho was more of a strategic kind of player, seeing what others couldn't see with a great sense of positional awareness of self and teammates) their development paths have differed greatly. The master dribbler from Nacho's 'class of 2013' was Yahaya Musa and he hasn't moved much in Portugal either.

So what is the secret?
Is it all in the head?
Watching Samu v Barca yesterday, you could almost smell the self-confidence.

One can hold out and argue for Nacho that he's in or with the wrong league/wrong team/wrong manager but we are slowly running out of excuses.

He is still young and we pray he will come good, but to be fair, he has not been short of opportunities for a 22 year old. Sane and Sterling he played with in ManCity are 23 and 24 respectively.

It’s youthful optimism, we saw the same in Iwobi and Iheanacho the year they broke into the first team, after which reality of the expectation on so called ‘experienced’ players kicks in, they start getting tentative or lose confidence, the sophomore slump and inability to live up to their initial promise. Let’s hope we don’t see this scenario replay itself, we need him to go to a club where he won’t be overwhelmed by the pressure to deliver.

[Enugu II]

Goldleaf,

Let us all hope. The fact is that his talent is one that may see him crowned the best ever player to come out of Nigeria. I think of his incredible pace and his ability to keep control of the ball at that pace and then his shooting. The potential is there. The question is will he achieve it.

You folks have come again...

Gotti,

I mean every word that I stated above without any apologies whatsoever. He has that potential Make no mistake about it. I said it months ago and have stated it again. He is on that trajectory the question is will he remain on it.