Barça 4-3 Celta: Recap

WHAT A WIN!!!!!!

Barcelona have temporarily extended their lead at the top of the La Liga table to 7 points thanks to a wild 4-3 comeback win against Celta Vigo at the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium on Saturday afternoon. After a poor start to the game the Blaugrana found themselves 3-1 down after an hour, but a furious second half comeback capped by a 98th minute winner by Raphinha from the penalty spot gave the Catalans three gigantic points to stay in control of the title race for another weekend.

FIRST HALF

Despite not having Lamine Yamal in the lineup, who began a game on the bench for the first time in months, Barça had a strong start to the contest with good passing from the back to beat Celta’s high press and quick, incisive movements in the final third to generate good attacks.

They needed just 11 minutes to find the opener thanks to a gorgeous run and finish by Ferran Torres, and the Catalans looked in pretty good shape early on. But a bad mistake changed everything: Celta won the ball back and went on a quick counter through the right wing, and Wojciech Szczesny failed to get out of his goal in time to claim a relatively weak Pablo Durán low cross which gifted Borja Iglesias a tap-in to equalize for the visitors just three minutes after Barça’s goal.

Celta immediately pounced upon scoring and began offering a real threat, and Szczesny was forced to redeem himself and make quite a few crucial saves, including a one-on-one chance against Iglesias and a monster double stop against Ilaix Moriba and Iker Losada. Barça’s offside trap didn’t work and Celta timed their runs and passes perfectly, and offered a huge threat for the entire period.

Barça on the other hand struggled to break down a stubborn and well-organized defense from the visitors, and had to settle for quite a few shots from distance that didn’t trouble Vicente Guaita and showed a lack of creativity from the hosts, who had no threat on the wings and didn’t find any spaces in the middle either against a compact 4-1-4-1 shape from the away side.

The halftime whistle came to end a concerning half for Barça, who looked vulnerable at the back and in desperate need of a spark up front. They had Yamal and others on the bench capable of changing things with individual brilliance, but the bigger issue was trying to figure out how to overcome a great Celta team performance after the opening 45 minutes.

SECOND HALF

Hansi Flick didn’t make a substitution at halftime but his opposite number did, as Claudio Giráldez sent on former Barça defender Óscar Mingueza and returned to his favorite 3-4-3 formation to become even more solid defensively with a back five out of possession.

Barça continued to struggle to attack either on the wing or through the middle, and they somehow gifted another goal to the visitors: Frenkie de Jong inexplicably failed to control a simple long ball from the back, allowing to bounce perfectly onto the path of Iglesias who had time and space to pick the bottom corner and double his tally to put the visitors ahead just seven minutes into the period.

Flick had no choice but to send Yamal and Dani Olmo at hour mark to try and bring his team back in the game, while Celta remained calm and composed at the back looking to perhaps double their lead on the counter.

And that is exactly what happened in the 62nd minute: after a bad pass from Olmo at the edge of the box, a simple clearance somehow went through three Barça defenders who just watched as Iglesias ran through the middle and lobbed Szczesny to complete his hat-trick and completely quiet the Montjuïc crowd.

Then Barça came to life and in just five minutes managed to erase Celta’s lead thanks to Raphinha, who first assisted Olmo’s nice left-footed finish and then headed home a gorgeous cross from Yamal to bring Barça — and the stadium — back into the contest.

The Blaugrana completely dominated the final 25 minutes and Celta fully parked the bus trying to keep the score as it was, even if it sacrificed their ability to counter-attack. Flick waited until the last five minutes to throw caution to the wind, sending on Pau Víctor, taking off two defenders an changing formations to a 3-3-4 looking for a late winner.

The Catalans almost conceded the winner in the 90th minute when Mingueza found himself all alone inside the six-yard box with a free header and an open net, but he somehow missed the target completely and headed wide to waste Celta’s best chance. Iago Aspas came off the bench and used some dirty timewasting tactics to try and frustrate Barça, and the game was still up for grabs as we reached eight minutes of stoppage time.

Celta’s timewasting seemed to be working and it looked as though we were headed for a devastating draw for Barça, then everything changed in the 96th minute: Yoel Lago kicked the back of Olmo’s foot inside the box, and the referee pointed to the spot after a quick VAR check.

Raphinha stepped up to the spot, fired a rocket into the net and completed the comeback for the hosts. The final whistle came a couple of minutes later to end one of the craziest games in recent Barça memory, one that they probably didn’t deserve to win but found a way to steal thanks to their special forward talent and their trademark resilience under Hansi Flick.

What a win, what a comeback, and what a way to survive an exceptional performance from Celta. This one is memorable.

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Barcelona: Szczesny; Kounde, Cubarsí (Eric 87’), Iñigo, Martín (Víctor 87’); De Jong, Pedri; Raphinha, Fermín (Olmo 59’), Ferran (Yamal 59’); Lewandowski (Gavi 78’)

Goals: Ferran (12’), Olmo (64’), Raphinha (68’, pen 90+8’)

Celta Vigo: Guaita; Rodríguez, Lago, Alonso, Carreira; Beltrán; Durán (López 74’), Moriba (Sotelo 89’), Losada (Mingueza 46’), Swedberg (Alfon 60’); Iglesias (Aspas 74’)

Goals: Iglesias (15’, 52’, 62’)

Source: barcablaugranes.com