It was not a successful evening for the Spanish champions. In the confrontation between the two great rivals, “Kingdom” was definitely better and the star of the evening is undoubtedly the scorer of three goals, Vinicius Junior.
No one shone in Barcelona colors, so it is not surprising that Xavi's players received average or poor ratings from the media. Journalists were relatively generous with Lewandowski, who scored his team's only goal in the 33rd minute of the match in Riyadh.
1. Lewandowski spoke after the El Clasico defeat. short and blunt
According to the editors of Catalan newspaper Sport, the word that best describes the Poles' performance on Sunday is “resolutivo”, which can be translated as “decisive”. He was awarded the highest 6 points in the team.
“Until a little late, he didn't receive a good ball, collected the thrown ball and sent it into the net with a powerful shot. Although he had little participation in the game, his nose for scoring goals is his foundation.” – wrote “Sport” in the review of the Pole game.
Apart from Lewandowski, only Ilkay Gundogan got a six. The games of Ferran Torres, Sergi Roberto, Ronald Araujo and Inaki Peña were rated with five points. “Fours” were given to Alejandro Baldem, Frankie de Jong and Pedri, and “threes” to Jules Cunde and Andreas Christensen.
The users of “Sports” website evaluated the players of Barcelona more strictly. Among them, Lewandowski achieved the highest average score – 4.24 points. Kunde got the lowest rating among the players – 2.19 points, while “Blaugrana” coach Xavi got even worse ratings – an average of 1.8 points.
Another Spanish sports newspaper, “Mundo Deportivo”, describes the attitude of the Polish striker with the term “certero”, which means “precise”. “He had his chance and took it with a great volley. He didn't get into the game, but poor passes from the wings didn't give him an advantage over the opponents' central defenders,” Javier Gascon. A journalist who evaluated Barca players wrote about Lewandowski.
The website BarcaUniversal.com rated Poland's Xavi the highest among all players in the team, with seven points. “In the beginning, he didn't have a particularly good match, he lost the ball several times in front of the opponents' goal, and in the end he scored a goal with a great flight and compensated for the loss. He summed up his performance.
According to BarcaUniversal.com, Gundogan earned 6.5 points, Ferran Torres and Joao Felix 6. Lamine Yamal and Balde got 5 points, Pedri 4.5, Christensen, De Jong and Fermin Lopez 4, Inaki Pena and Sergi Roberto 3, and Kunde and Araukho, who received a red card, received 0.
GW, Polsat Sport